Power Rangers: Astro Force
by Shinigamilover2
Summary: AU, the souls of the lions have been sealed into five power cards and hidden away on Earth. Keith, Shiro, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge find the cards and are given incredible powers. With their new powers, and help from their new mentor they are about to become the newest breed of Power Rangers, Astro Force! Rated T for action related violence. R&R please
1. A Ranger's Beginnings I

**A/N: Ever since I've been binge watching 'Voltron: Legendary Defender' on Netflix, and looking through the fan fiction category for this I thought to myself "How is there not a 'Power Rangers' AU of this!?". So I decided it was time for the Paladins of Voltron to become the Power Rangers: Astro Force. Allura and Coran will be in this story, but the one who will assemble the rangers will be a former ranger from a previous Power Rangers season. So, without further ado... let's dive right into the story! Enjoy!**

A long time ago, there were five robotic lions, they represented the elements that made up the universes around us. These elements were fire, water, earth, nature, and sky, and each one possessed great elemental powers used to defend the innocent. All five lions served a master, these masters were known as Paladins, and it was their sole duty to protect and serve the galaxy using their lions to preserve order and peace.

But soon, one Paladin wanted nothing more than to use his lion to enforce order and forge his own empire. His name was Zarkon, a member of the Galra race, and once he realized that the lions could be use to cause grievous harm to the universe, he slaughtered his fellow Paladins in cold blood. But King Alfor, the ruler of the Alteans, and protector of the planet Arus, fought Zarkon and rose victorious. When Zarkon was defeated, Alfor forbade Zarkon from ever being a Paladin again, and denied him the powers of the lion he once fought beside. But for Zarkon, it was not over, for he swore revenge on Alfor and the Alteans.

The banished Zarkon had later on met a witch named Haggar, and she taught him dark magics, and how to create mighty monsters and beasts to fight his battles for him. With Haggar's magic and teachings, he assembled an army of his fellow Galra, and told him of a plan he had to make an empire and rule over every living creature and planet in the galaxy. All Galra followed him in his cause, and thus Zarkon had crowned himself Emperor of the Galra.

Zarkon had then launched an attack on the Altean world and had Alfor and his forces heavily outnumbered. Several have lost their lives protecting their home world. Zarkon demanded that all the lions would be handed over to him, and he would cease his attacks, but Alfor refused. Just as many more were killed, Alfor took action and had his daughter Allura and her royal adviser Coran sealed in hyper-sleep in their castle.

When hope seemed lost, and Alfor considered handing the lions over to Zarkon in order to save his people, out of a blinding light came forth a warrior dressed in white and wore a mask over his head. He told Alfor his name was Sam, and that he was from the future. Sam told Alfor of a plan to protect the lions, and defeating Zarkon for good. Alfor looked to Sam as a last hope, and listened to his plan. Sam then sealed the lions and their powers away inside five power cards. He then told Alfor that he would hide the cards away and keep them safe with someone special, until the cards chose five new warriors who they would deem worthy of their powers. After the two exchanged their goodbyes, Sam left for the future and Alfor died in battle at Zarkon's hands. But in his dying moments, Alfor felt peace, knowing that the lions and their powers were safe and hidden away somewhere safe.

Sam then arrived in the future and approached a firefighter named Carter Grayson. Sam had told Carter all about Zarkon and the Galra, and what was stored inside the power cards that he had locked away inside a metal box that he had handed to him. Carter then knew of how important it was that these cards remained hidden, and to trust the cards to find new masters to harness their incredible powers. When Carter realized the importance of his mission, Sam had left leaving the cards with him.

Carter had then traveled out to the desert, a place where he knew nobody would ever come looking for him. He took refuge inside a cave and began fitting it with accommodations to make it his own home. He had build several bedrooms, bathrooms, a massive computer, and a kitchen as well. Once living arrangements for Carter were all taken care of, he began building powerful devices to help control the powers of the cards and the warriors they would choose as worthy. All Carter could do now was wait, wait for five beings to be chosen by the cards and the lions inside them to become their new masters, five who would become... Power Rangers.

- **Ten Years Later-**

Three cadets at the Galaxy Garrison flight school had just failed their simulator test. Pidge Gunderson, Lance McClain, and Hunk Garett were those cadets who failed, mostly due to Lance's carelessness behind the controls, causing them to lose their ships tail-fin, and Hunk vomiting in the main gear box. Their major had scolded them for what had happened as well, and had scolded Lance, reminding him that he wouldn't wanna follow in the footsteps of their last student who was expelled from the academy due to him having an attitude problem. Later that night, Lance was sneaking out late at night, and he was making Hunk follow him.

"Uh, Lance. Are you sure we should be doing this? I don't wanna get in trouble" Hunk said, a little uneasy about sneaking out of the dorms past their academy curfew.

"You know, for someone in the space exploration program, you don't have much a sense of adventure, Hunk. Now come with me to get Pidge and we'll sneak out for a night on the town" Lance told him. Hunk just groaned and followed Lance, but before they could reach Pidge's room, they saw him sneaking out of his room carrying a heavy looking backpack.

"What's he doing?" Lance thought aloud to himself. The two them had then decided to follow Pidge, without being noticed and saw that he was now on the roof in front of several tiny computers and headphones on his head. Lance then tiptoed behind him and lifted one of the headphones off his ear and spoke.

"You come here to rock out?" Lance asked, causing Pidge to jump where he stood startled and look behind him with wide eyes. He calmed down once he saw Hunk and Lance.

"Oh, hey Lance. Didn't expect to see you guys up here" Pidge told them. Just as Lance was about to extend an invitation to his classmate, he noticed the computers all around him.

"What's with all this stuff? Where did you get it?" Lance asked. Hunk was about to touch it but Pidge smacked his hand away from the main module and answered his question.

"I built it, and stop touching my stuff, Hunk!" he reprimanded.

"So, what are you doing with it anyways?" Lance said after Pidge spotted Hunk trying to touch the computers again.

"Third warning, Hunk!" he scolded.

"So anyways, I've been picking up alien radio chatter for the past few days and I've been trying to make some sense out of what it could mean. The major words I've been able to translate are 'Power Cards', 'Lions', and 'Grayson'. Not sure what all these words have to do with one another though" Pidge explained. Lance and Hunk looked at him like he was acting crazy or something, but just as soon as they were about to brush everything off, Hunk shouted 'Look!' and pointed to the night sky to see something. Lance then swiped Pidge's electric binoculars and looked to see it had the structure of a ship, more than likely to be an escape pod based on how it was designed and that it was covered in fire.

"Guys, it's a ship! It's entering the atmosphere" Lance told them. Just as the ship crashed in the middle of the desert, the alarms went off and a voice echoed inside and outside of the Garrison saying the entire facility was on lock-down and that everyone was to stay inside. Pidge then spotted several vehicles heading towards the crash site.

"Come on, let's go see what it is!" Lance said. Hunk and Pidge then packed up all of Pidge's equipment and followed him. By the time they got to the crash site they saw a large dome had been set up.

"What's going on in there?" Lance asked while staring down at the dome.

"Hold on, I'm hacking into the security cameras" Pidge said. With just a few clicks and clacks of the keys, he opened up some security feed of a human being strapped to a table wearing tattered up purple clothes with pasty white skin, black hair with a patch of white in the front, a scar on his nose, and a robotic right arm.

"Please, calm down, Shiro" one of the workers wearing a bio-hazard suit calmly ordered him.

"You don't understand! Something is coming and we need to stop it! We need to find the power cards!" he shouted. This caught their attention.

"Wait, did he just say 'Shiro'?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, you know him?" Hunk responded.

"That guy's my hero" Lance told them.

"Did anyone hear him say 'Power Cards'? Because I swear I heard him mention those" Pidge piped in.

"Nobody cares about your stupid alien talk and co-called cards, Pidge! We gotta save him" Lance said.

"Yeah, but how? It's surrounded by guards" Hunk added.

"Easy, we just need to create a distraction to draw the guards away" Lance told him. Just after those words were spoken, an explosion in a large rock formation caught their attention as well as the guards' attention as well. Before they knew it, several Garrison vehicles began moving towards the explosion's source.

"That can work" said Pidge.

"But where did it come from?" Hunk asked. Lance then noticed something below and picked up the electric binoculars again to see a red vehicle being piloted by a male in his late teens with black hair and wearing mostly red.

"That's where it came from! And he's heading for Shiro!" Lance said before running towards him.

"Wait! Who is that!?" Hunk asked.

"Keith is not getting to Shiro before I do!" Lance swore.

"Who's Keith!?" both Hunk and Pidge asked, but he didn't answer them and just entered the containment dome to see that Keith had just taken down the guards and carrying Shiro out. Lance then walked up to him and picked up Shiro on his right side.

"Hey! We're rescuing Shiro here! Not you!" Lance told him. Keith raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Who are you?" Keith asked.

"Lance! From the Academy? Ringing any bells?" Lance answered, but Keith didn't respond and kept on carrying him out the dome.

"Everybody hop on" Keith told them. All of them got on board Keith's speeder and began driving away from the Garrison vehicles who had spotted them. Keith had then gotten a bright idea and drove further into the depths of a canyon and making dangerous curves and turns.

"Woooooooaaaaaaahhhhhh!" they all screamed. A few of the vehicles had been destroyed or swerved of the road, but one still followed them. Keith then noticed that they were heading towards the edge of a cliff and got an idea and began going faster and faster towards the cliff's edge.

"What are you doing!?" Hunk asked.

"You are going to kill us!" Pidge told him.

"Just trust me!" Keith told them as he began going faster and faster towards the cliff. When they drove off the edge of the cliff, everyone but Keith and the unconscious Shiro was screaming, fearing they were going to die. Halfway through the fall, Keith revved the handlebars and the speeder's engines and propellers were now going faster and they landed safely on the ground.

"You're crazy!" Lance shouted. Keith didn't listen and kept on driving away further into the desert until they reached a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Once Shiro woke up, Keith gave him some spare clothes to put on, which was a long sleeve black shirt, dark gray cargo pants, and a black vest.

"Thanks for saving me back there, really appreciate it" Shiro thanked them.

"No problem, my name's Keith" he said, holding his hand out to shake with his, but Lance pushed Keith away and shook it instead.

"Lance, big fan. That's Hunk and Pidge" Lance told him, they just waved their hands to him to give a friendly 'Hello' without having to speak.

"Well, I think you got saving me, but I have to find the cards" Shiro said, about to leave but Pidge stood in the way.

"Yeah, about that... what are these 'Cards' exactly? I've been trying to make sense of a few words I picked up from some radio chatter from space, it mentioned something about 'Power Cards', some 'Lions' and someone named 'Grayson'" he asked.

"No idea. But what I do remember was my crew and I were held captive aboard some kind of warship and we were held there for quite some time. I managed to escape but I was separated from the rest of my crew. During my time as a prisoner I did hear them say something about cards that possessed some kind of magic powers and that they needed to find them to complete their conquest and expand the empire" Shiro explained.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in" Hunk piped in.

"Did they say anything about what these cards were capable of?" Pidge added.

"No, only that they possessed the powers of some kind of ancient creatures built ten thousand years ago" Shiro answered.

"I think I may know where to look for answers" Keith piped in and all eyes were on him. He pulled down a curtain and revealed a wall with several photos and notes written on yellow note paper.

"I was listening on some of that radio chatter too. I haven't been able to make out what the words meant until Shiro explained what these 'Power Cards' were. And as for 'Grayson' and 'Lions' I still don't know what they mean either. But while I was out walking in the afternoon one day, I came across this cave, It was sealed by a large metal door, and right in front of it was a large lion's head. I tried getting into it but it requires some kind of handprint scanner to get inside" Keith explained.

"You think whatever these cards are could be inside that cave?" Shiro asked.

"Possibly, I went back the next day with a scanner, and it picked up something behind the door. It was unlike anything I've ever seen, it was more stronger than any form of radiation, but I don't think it's something radioactive" Keith told them before picking up a piece of paper and handed it to Pidge.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's the readings I got from my scanner. It goes way above any form of radiation anyone's ever seen" Keith told him. Pidge closely analyzed the readings and his eyes went wide.

"Woah, he's right. This isn't like anything I've ever seen. I don't think any kind of scientist has ever discovered anything like this either" Pidge said before showing Lance, Hunk, and Shiro the readings.

"All I see is a bunch of big zig-zags on a chart" Lance said, causing everyone to groan and face-palm themselves.

"Look, I think whatever Shiro's captor's were looking for could be in that cave. I just need someone to bypass the hand-print scanner so we can go inside" Keith told them. Pidge then raised his hand with a smile.

"I'll do it!" he cheered.

"You can?" Shiro and Keith asked in unison.

"Sure can. I'm a master when it comes to technology. I've also hacked several high-security guarded networks as well" Pidge answered.

"It's true, when it comes to computers, phones, and tablets, he can hack pretty much anything" Lance told them.

"Alright, we'll go right now. Hop on my speeder and I'll take you guys there. It's only a ten minute trip there" Keith told them. They all followed him and got onto his speeder, their journey to the cave began.

 **A/N: There's chapter one for you! They may not be rangers yet, but they will be soon. For those of you who are new to the Power Ranger fandom, Sam is from 'Power Rangers S.P.D', and he does actually come from the future, I thought it would only make sense for him to travel through time to obtain the lions and place them in the cards. And Carter Grayson is the Red 'Lightspeed Rescue' Ranger, my favorite red ranger out of Bridge Carson and Connor McKnight. Part 2 of the beginning of this story will continue in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	2. A Ranger's Beginnings II

**A/N: Welcome to part two of the beginning of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. In the first part we got a back story all set up, and introduced the main characters. Now they're on their way to the cave Keith was talking about, which may have the answers they're looking for as to what these mysterious 'Power Cards' are, and what Shiro's captor wants with them. Now let's dive into the action shall we? Enjoy!**

Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, inside a large ship that looked very menacing and surrounded by large rings around it and warships and fighter ships swarmed all around it. The larger ship was the command center for the Galra empire, and this is where Emperor Zarkon sat, ruling over every single being in the galaxy with an iron fist. Zarkon wore dark red armor with glowing purple vents on the chest and a matching helmet and a cape as well. As Zarkon sat on his throne, Haggar, the witch who taught him magic and other dark arts had entered the throne room and knelt before him.

"What is it, Haggar?" asked Zarkon.

"Sire, we still have not been able to find the Power Cards. But there is good news" Haggar spoke.

"Continue" Zarkon told her.

"We have located the Altean Castle, it's resting on the planet Arus. It appears uninhabited, but we have sensed two life forms deep in hyper-sleep inside it. We have reason to believe Alfor's daughter Allura and her adviser Coran are the ones inside those pods" Haggar told him confidently.

"So, the princess is alive? This could be very good for us. She may know where the cards are hidden. If we get her to talk, they will be all ours, and I will have reclaimed my lion" Zarkon said after he stood up from his throne and raised his left hand and clenching it into a fist.

"Indeed, that was what we were hoping" Haggar said with a smile, rising up from her kneeling position.

"Set a course for Arus, and bring me the princess alive" he ordered.

"I'm sending Sendak with an army of sentries to help him. The princess will have no way out of this situation" answered Haggar.

"Good, very good. Inform me once she is captured" Zarkon said, sitting down on his throne one more before Haggar left the throne room.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Keith had just arrived with his new friends at the cave he was talking about. The door was just as how he remembered it, sealed shut with a large lion head painted on the front.

"Wow, this is like a hangar door" Lance said, in awe of the door's size.

"Hand print scanner is right over there" said Keith, pointing to his right. Pidge then got down on one knee in front of it and took off the panel that covered up the wires and inner workings.

"Alright, shouldn't be too hard. Might take a few minutes though" Pidge said before he took out a toolbox from his backpack and took out a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and a wrench. He searched inside the panel for a few seconds until he found the motherboard.

"There you are" Pidge whispered to himself before he began using the screwdriver to loosen the motherboard from the wall it was screwed on to, and then began rewiring the entire thing. Once everything was rewired the way Pidge wanted, the part of the scanner where the hand would go became green instead of blue and the door opened up.

"Game on" Pidge said before sealing the panel back up.

"Good work, Pidge. Now come on, let's see what's inside" Shiro told everyone. They all followed him inside and the door shut behind them. The walls behind the door were metal, not rock like they thought it was. The hallway was also illuminated by lights on the ceiling, a few of them were a little suspicious as to why the cave's insides were like this. Once they reached the end of the hall, they came across a very large computer as well as a work space for working on circuitry.

"You're all seeing this too right?" Keith asked, everyone else nodded. Pidge now had tears of happiness in his eyes.

"This is beautiful. It's like a dream come true" Pidge said, poking around the place. Keith then grabbed the collar of Pidge's shirt and pulled him away from the bench containing lots of tools and circuit boards.

"Focus, Pidge!" Keith scolded. Shiro then noticed something in the very center of the room. There was a table that had five small colored glass podiums on it, the podium in the middle was red, the two on it's left were blue and green, and the two on it's right were black and yellow. Atop the podiums were what looked like glowing colored cards.

"Hey, you guys should see this!" Shiro called out to them. Lance, Keith, Pidge, and Hunk walked with Shiro to the table and saw the cards glowing their own respective colors.

"I think these are the cards they were talking about" Hunk said. The cards looked like they were made of a material similar to plexiglass, on the front was a golden lion's head, and the rest of the card was covered in gold electrical pathways similar to the kind a circuit board has on it.

"Okay, now that's super cool" Pidge said while adjusting his glasses to get a better look at the green card. Each one of them had their eyes drawn to a certain card. While Pidge couldn't stop staring at the green card, Keith was staring into the red card, Hunk was fascinated with the yellow card, Shiro with the black card, and Lance was looking deep into the design of the blue card.

"So now that we've found the cards, now what?" Lance asked.

"We're gonna take one and then hide it away somewhere safe. Because whoever this giant man-cave belongs to, these aren't safe with them" Shiro told them.

"Good idea" Hunk added. They all took the cards off the podiums, but once they were taken off they all lost their colored glow.

"That's weird" Pidge said looking at the front and backs of the green plexiglass card.

"Why did it stop glowing?" Lance asked. Soon an alarm went off and all the doors that lead to another room in the cave were shut off.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" the intercom said in a female voice that sounded like it was coming from a computer. A man with pale white skin, messy brown hair, and wearing a red jumpsuit jumped from behind the computer and began attacking the five of them.

"Who are you!? Why are you taking the power cards!?" he demanded, but none of them answered. He then saw that none of the cards were glowing, and he gasped before pulling out a walkie talkie and spoke into it.

"Deactivate security system" he ordered. The alarms stopped and the doors opened up.

"The cards... t-t-they chose you" the man told them. They all looked at the cards and gave a confused look. He then gave them all a military style salute.

"Forgive me for attacking you. Former firefighter Carter Grayson at your service" he introduced himself. All of them now had their eyes wide.

"Grayson? This is the Grayson they were talking about?" Lance asked.

"Well he did say that was his last name" Hunk added.

"Indeed. I'm surprised you found me, and the cards. And I can't say how happy I am right now" Carter said, no longer saluting them.

"I don't understand, how are you happy? We broke into your home, we almost stole from you" Keith asked confused.

"Follow me, and I will explain everything to you" Carter said, signaling all five teens to follow him to the computer and he activated a video on the large screen. It showed Zarkon, a video of his minions attacking innocent people, and photos of his ships.

"This is Emperor Zarkon, the leader of the Galra empire. He was once a Paladin of a powerful creature, the black lion. There were five lions, red, black, green, yellow, and blue, and each one of them had a master called a Paladin and their job was to protect others. Zarkon became power hungry and wanted nothing more than to destroy the galaxy and remold it in his own image. After he murdered his fellow paladins, he was exiled. Later on a few years later, he came back looking for revenge and formed his own empire and began killing innocent people from several planets. Just as they were about to take the lions, a warrior from the future sealed the lions and their elemental powers away into the power cards. That very same warrior gave me the cards and told them to hide them away until they chose new paladins to harness their powers" Carter said before he turned the computer off.

"Okay, that definitely explains everything" Pidge said.

"So, now we're the galaxy's only hope of ever being free again, or something?" asked Lance.

"That's correct. And I can train you how to hone your new-found powers" Carter said.

"But how do we know we're the right ones?" asked Shiro.

"When you touched the cards, they stopped glowing. That means they chose you" Carter said before he walked over to a large metal vault and entered a combination.

"But if we have these powers and control these lions now, why is Zarkon still hunting them?" Keith added.

"The only way these powers can be taken away, is if the cards are destroyed and the lions are unleashed" He said just as he pulled out a large metal box. All their eyes were wide now in terror and they gulped.

"Yikes" Hunk said looking down at his card.

"But fortunately, in order to preserve them I built these" Carter said placing the box on a large workbench and opened it up to reveal five gauntlets in red, blue, black, yellow, and green. The gauntlets were in the shape of a rectangle, the front was curved up to a top angle like a triangle, and the backs had a semicircle handle. The middle had a see-through glass template in the shape of a tiny rectangle, and underneath it looked like a circuit board. Upon first glance, all five card holders were confused.

"You want us to fight an alien empire with oversized wrist-watches?" Lance asked.

"For your information these are not 'oversized wrist-watches', they are your Astro-Morphers" Carter corrected.

"Morphers?" they all asked in unison.

"Have any of you ever heard of the Power Rangers?" asked Carter.

"Yeah, who hasn't?" Hunk asked.

"I thought they were just stories" Keith added.

"I've heard of them" Pidge said raising his hand.

"Once or twice" Lance said shrugging his shoulders.

"My kindergarten teacher told me and my classmates stories about them" Shiro added.

"Well, by combining these morphers and those cards. You are now the Astro Force Power Rangers" Carter said. All of them now had wide smiles on their faces.

"Are you serious!?" Lance said happily.

"This has gotta be the best day of my life!" Hunk said.

"Ever since I was a little kid I've always wanted to be a Power Ranger!" Pidge said, cheering like a fan-boy.

"Guess those stories my teacher told us weren't stories after all" Shiro said with a small smile.

"This is without a doubt, one of the weirdest things to happen to me in my life" Keith said looking at his card. Carter then approached Pidge with the green gauntlet and held his arm up to it.

"Pidge, the green lion is the spirit of the forest and nature, and is the most gifted and intelligent. You shall be the green ranger" Carter said before placing the gauntlet on his wrist and once it was on, a black strap appeared and secured it to Pidge's arm.

"Awesome! I'm the green ranger!" Pidge cheered. Carter then gave Hunk the yellow gauntlet.

"Hunk, the yellow lion has the biggest heart and is the guardian of the element of Earth. This makes you the yellow ranger" Carter said once the yellow gauntlet was secure.

"Yes sir!" Hunk said with a salute. He then gave Shiro the black gauntlet and attached it to his robot prosthetic.

"Shiro, the black lion is the guardian of the sky. From this day forth you are the black ranger" Carter said. Shiro just nodded and gave a simple 'Thank You' before Carter went to Lance and gave him the blue gauntlet.

"Lance, the blue lion is the protector of water, and is the most playful and free-spirited which is why you are now the blue ranger" Carter said once the grasp was connected to Lance's arm.

"Check it out everyone, blue ranger is in the house!" Lance cheered, which made everyone just chuckle and shake their heads slightly. Lastly, Carter gave Keith the red gauntlet.

"And Keith, the red lion is the embodiment of fire, and without a doubt is the most stubborn of them all, but also the strongest. Because of how this lion chose you, you have now become the red ranger" Carter concluded.

"I'm honored" Keith said, bowing in respect.

"So, how do these work exactly? Doesn't a Power Ranger's morpher have to have some kind of command or super secret password?" Lance asked, poking at the gauntlet.

"Allow me to show you" Carter said, taking up Lance's arm which had his morpher attached and pressed a button on the very top and the back slid out to reveal a slot to place the card.

"Once you place the card inside the morpher, all you have to do is say 'Astro Blaster, Supercharge' and then you'll be morphed. Once transformed, all the knowledge and powers the cards come with will bond with your genetic makeup, you'll know exactly what to do" he explained.

"Astro Blaster? Sounds like something Lance would make up" Hunk said.

"I kinda like it" Lance said.

"Yeah, no duh you would" Keith added. Just before anyone could say anything else, the alarm went off again and Carter ran to the computer and pulled up an image of an alien castle being attacked by Galra warships.

"We've got trouble on planet Arus. Princess Allura is under attack. You've gotta go there and protect her" Carter said.

"How? That planet's gotta be millions of light years away, it'll take months to get there" Pidge said. Carter then pressed a button and a larger door on the left of the room opened to reveal a large blue energy gate.

"This is the wormhole generator. Once coordinates are set, jump right through and it'll take you anywhere in the galaxy" Carter explained.

"I like it" Pidge said, looking at the gateway with magnificence in his eyes.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go rangers!" Shiro ordered before they all ran right through the gate. When they left, the wormhole was closed.

"I pray this works" Carter whispered to himself.

 **A/N: And there is part two, part three is where they finally unlock their ranger powers and show the Galra what the Power Rangers can do. And there are references in this chapter, Shiro's teacher who told him stories of the Power Rangers was Alyssa, the White Wild Force ranger (as shown in the final episode of 'Power Rangers: Wild Force'). So now that they've become rangers, will it be enough to take on the Galra? Find out in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	3. A Ranger's Beginnings III

**A/N: Welcome to part 3 of the introduction of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. The Galra have now planned an attack on the castle on Ares, and the Power Cards have been discovered by our main characters, which now makes them the Astro Force rangers! Keith is the red ranger, Shiro is the black ranger, Pidge is the green ranger, Hunk is the yellow ranger, and Lance is the blue ranger. Now, the Galra have now fully commenced their attack on Allura and her castle, while she and Coran are still in hyper-sleep, and the newly christened Power Rangers are going to Ares to rescue them and fight some Galra. Let's get into the action shall we? Enjoy!**

Inside the castle on Arus, Princess Allura was still in hyper-sleep, as well as her loyal friend and adviser Coran. But when the entire structure started to shake and the alarms started going off, the pod that contained her shut down and she fell right out of it. Her vision was blurry and she felt very groggy, but she managed to get right up off the floor and walked over to Coran's pod to see he was now awake.

"Oh my aching head" Coran complained as he stood up. Allura picked him up by the arm and helped him stand up.

"Coran, are you alright?" the princess asked.

"I'm quite alright. No need to worry about my my lady" he said. The castle shook again and some rubble emitted from the ceiling.

"What was that?" Allura asked.

"I think we may be under attack. We'll have to stay together if we are to survive" Coran said. The door was then blown up to bits and seveal pieces of metal and debris landed on the floor. Galra sentries barged through the door and held Coran and Allura at gunpoint.

"Do not move!" the robotic sentry soldiers said in unison with a monotone echoing voice. Out of the smoke from which the door once stood came out a Galra with a prosthetic eye, and a robotic arm in which the entire arm itself was made of a plasma stream. This was Sendak, one of Zarkon's most trusted generals and leaders of his armies.

"Good morning Princess. I hope you had a pleasant nap" Sendak mocked. Allura snarled at him.

"Put her in cuffs and prepare her for departure onto the shuttle" Sendak ordered.

"Yes sir" they all said in unison before they placed her and Coran in cuffs. The sentries then escorted them outside where an entire squadron of Galra sentries surrounded the bridge, and in the sky seveal Galra warships hovered above the castle and it's land.

"Your father was foolish to think he could hide you from us. Now we're bound to know where the cards are" Sendak said to Allura.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Allura told him.

"Do not lie to me. We know your father sealed the lions away inside those Power Cards! The sooner we have them, the better my master will be unopposed" Sendak said. Before Coran or Allura could speak, a large wormhole opened right in front of them and out of it stepped out Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

"Let her go!" Keith demanded. Sendak only chuckled.

"And just who do you think you are, trying to give me orders?" Sendak asked.

"Oh us? Nobody, except the guys who are gonna kick your butts to the edge of the next galaxy" Lance said in a snarky tone.

"You're either brave or foolish to challenge me" Sendak growled.

"Maybe we're both. And to my understanding, you're looking for these" Keith said holding up his red card, the others joined them in holding up their own cards. Sendak gasped and became furious.

"How did you get those!?" he demanded to know.

"They chose us, and that's all you need to know. Now release the princess!" Pidge told him. All this got out of Sendak was a laugh.

"You have no idea what the Galra are capable of" he spat at them.

"Oh yeah, well wait until you see what we can do!" Hunk said.

"Ready?" Keith asked.

"Ready!" the others responded. They pressed the buttons on the front of their gauntlets and the back slid out. Once they placed the cards on the backs of the gauntlets, they slid back inside and the cards began glowing.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they shouted in unison. All of them were now engulfed in a flash of colored light and their clothes were replaced with a colored suit that matched the colors of their cards and morphers. The suits had a symbol on their chests which was a gold circle and inside it was a lion's head. Their gloves were white and went up to the bottoms of their elbows but on their wrists were gold bracelets, their boots were white as well and went up to the bottoms of their knees. On their waists were golden belts with a circular buckle on it that had a certain symbol on it, a flame for fire for the red suit, a tree for nature on the green suit, a large cloud for sky on the black suit, a set of waves for water on the blue suit, and a mountain for Earth on the yellow suit. And to top it all off, a helmet molded to look like a lion, with the eyes on the top of it, and inside it's mouth was a black visor that covered their eyes.

"Wow, check it out!" Lance said looking down at himself.

"This totally rocks!" Pidge said cheerfully.

"Are you kidding me? This feels incredible!" Hunk added.

"I feel amazing! Like I could take on the whole world!" Keith said.

"Nobody's messing with us now!" Shiro said. Sendak gasped in surprise.

"What!? Power Rangers!?" he shouted. Allura and Coran were in shock as well, they weren't Paladins but they looked powerful and looked like they were more than capable enough to take down all these Galra soldiers.

"With the strength of the Earth, Astro Force Yellow Ranger!" Hunk said before taking a fighting stance.

"With the freedom of the sky, Astro Force Black Ranger!" Shiro said taking a fighting stance as well.

"With the grace of nature, Astro Force Green Ranger!" Pidge said holding out her hands like claws like an actual lion would.

"With the purity of water, Astro Force Blue Ranger!" Lance said doing a kick flip and taking a fighting stance.

"With the ferocity of fire, Astro Force Red Ranger!" Keith shouted before he took a defensive stance.

"Power Rangers, Astro Force!" All of them shouted together in unison.

"Way to go guys" A voice came from inside their heads, one they all recognized.

"Carter? Is that you?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, I'm communicating to you though your helmets. Built in headsets" Carter explained.

"Nice" Pidge said, impressed at how the ranger uniforms came with some impressive tech.

"Now you can't just go into battle unarmed. Look down to your hip, you'll see a golden hilt attached" Carter instructed. All five rangers took the hilts off their belts to see a gold lion head with an open mouth on the very end of it. Once off, out of the lions mouths came out glowing colored blades.

"These are your power swords, whenever in a fight, they're your best friends" Carter told them.

"Now this is sick!" Hunk said looking into the glowing yellow blade.

"Enough of this nonsense! Attack!" Sendak shouted, and all the sentries began attacking the rangers. All the rangers began charging towards the sentries and began taking them out one by one.

"That all ya got?" Pidge asked as he did a front flip and sliced one sentry in half.

"Have a nice trip!" Hunk said when he swung his sword right though a sentry's legs and caused it to fall and be separated from it's legs.

"See you next fall!" Lance said when he slashed his sword across a row of sentry's heads and the entire row fell down in pieces. Keith used his sword to cut the sentries' guns in half and causing them to become piles of broken bits and pieces.

"Oh yeah, this is looking bad. You're definitely gonna have to take this into the shop, buddy" Keith taunted before he punched one and his hand went right through the sentries' head, and then sliced the others with his power sword. Within minutes of fighting the bridge was covered in destroyed Galra sentries.

"What!? How can this be!? You were outnumbered, one hundred against five!" Sendak shouted in disbelief.

"It's not the size of the dog and the fight, it's the size of the fight and the dog!" Shiro told him.

"Well, this dog's bark's worse than it's bite. Now you face me, Rangers!" Sendak said before charging at them. Each ranger was defending themselves from all of the attacks Sendak was giving them. Pidge tried attacking his plasma arm, but he turned it into a whip and sent Pidge flying a foot away from him.

"Pidge! You're gonna pay for that!" Shiro said before he tried swiping his legs underneath Sendak's in an attempt to get him to slip and fall, but he jumped before Shiro could trip him and punched him in his chest which sent him almost flying over the edge of bridge.

"I'm through wasting my time with you, Rangers!" Sendak said just as his hand began surrounding itself with purple lighting and he slammed his fist on the bridge's surface and making all five rangers fall to the surface.

"He's too strong" Shiro said.

"That arm's what's giving him power. We have to cut it off!" Pidge said.

"How? He's too quick for us" Lance asked. Carter then spoke to them through their headsets in their ranger helmets.

"Rangers, combine your swords. All five elements together can bring forth a powerful new one" Carter said.

"You got it" Keith said. Everyone allowed the blades of their swords to touch one another's and all the swords combined into one large sword with a silver handle and a glowing white blade which was tightly gripped inside Keith's hands.

"I'm not afraid of that thing!" Sendak shouted.

"You should be, because now you're about to kiss your arm goodbye!" Keith said before they all shouted a command together.

"Infinity sword! Power strike!" and with that command said by all rangers in unison, Keith made a swipe with the sword and a white wave of energy struck Sendak and his prosthetic was severed from the rest of his body.

"My arm! You cut off my arm!" he shouted.

"Now's our chance! Attack at every angle and give him zero chance of attack" Keith told them before the Infinity sword disbanded and they had their respective power swords back.

"Alright, let's do it" Lance said.

"Astro Rangers, strike!" Shiro called out. All the rangers then attacked Sendak with their swords and each attack brought pain to their enemy. Soon, now covered with several cuts in his armor and skin he fell onto his back and exploded into a cloud of smoke. All that was left of their foe was his armor and his arm. All the Galra fleets which were in the air retreated into the stars and it was clear that victory belonged to the Power Rangers.

"D-Did we win?" Hunk asked, staring at his sword and then diverting his attention to what remained of the fallen Galra commander.

"I think we did" Shiro said.

"We did it! We did it! I can't believe we actually did it!" Lance said cheering up and down.

"Of course we did! We're Power Rangers!" Pidge said happily.

"Power down!" they all shouted in unison and their ranger suits disappeared. This time, the clothes they wore before had been swapped out with a black long sleeve waffle pattern shirt with a colored vest over it with their belt buckle symbols patched over their hearts, and matching color skinny jeans, and their gauntlets were back on their arms.

"Nice, we got new threads too" Pidge said while admiring his new outfit.

"I kinda like this look" Hunk said.

"They feel more comfy than my other clothes" Lance said.

"Now these are some comfy clothes" Shiro said.

"These have 'I'm a Power Ranger' written all over them" Keith said. The gauntlets opened back up and they took their cards out and placed them in their vest pockets, once all cards were out the gauntlets closed up. All the rangers ran over to Allura and Coran to take their cuffs off.

"Are you alright princess?" Shiro asked.

"I am now. Thanks to you all" Allura said.

"That was quite the show you put on for us back there. I gotta admit, I am impressed" Coran admitted.

"Thank you" Lance said taking a bow like he was an actor in a play.

"Princess, if you'll come with us you'll meet our mentor, Carter Grayson. He will be more than happy to give you some resting grounds as well as food and information" Keith said gently.

"Of course. You did save my life after all, I am in your debt, Power Rangers" Allura said bowing to them. Coran did the same as well.

"As am I" he piped in. The wormhole back to Earth opened up and all seven remaining people on the bridge walked into it to arrive back where they came from.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

"You mean to tell me, you failed to take the princess and now Sendak is dead because five alien creatures overpowered all of them even though they were all outnumbered!?" Zarkon shouted in a kneeling Haggar's face.

"They weren't just any alien being, sire. They were Power Rangers" Haggar told them.

"And I suppose that makes it better!?" Zarkon asked rhetorically in anger.

"I beg for your forgiveness, sire. I can assure you that the next time these rangers come across us, we will be much stronger than ever before" Haggar said. Zarkon then grabbed Haggar by the throat and had her in his tight grip, which she was gasping for air.

"I am not someone who takes failure lightly, witch! These 'Power Rangers' cannot stand in our way again! Make sure of that!" Zarkon shouted tossing Haggar to the other side of the throne room and she coughed as she took back up.

"Y-Yes sire" she said without emotion before leaving the throne room. When Zarkon was all alone, he sat back down on his throne and began speaking to himself.

"This is not over, Power Rangers. What you just did today... is a declaration of rebellion, a declaration of defiance, a declaration of war" he snarled, balling his hand into a fist.

 **A/N: And there is the third and final part of the introduction of our story! The rest of the story is gonna show how the Power Rangers face Zarkon and his empire, and where their quest to end Zarkon's reign for good. What happens next to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	4. Gladiator's Revenge I

**A/N: Now that the three part introduction 'A Ranger's Beginnings' has been completed, we can move further with the story and watch how the Power Rangers adjust to their new lives and their fights to destroy Zarkon forever. Now let's start the next new chapter of the Astro Force rangers. Enjoy!**

Back on Earth, inside one of the rooms of the cave the rangers were leaning against the wall watching two of their fellow rangers engage in power sword practice. Hunk had fought Lance, and Shiro fought Hunk, now it was time for Keith and Pidge to fight.

"Alright, begin" Carter said. Pidge and Keith withdrew their cards from their vest pockets and pressed the buttons on their morphers to let the back slide out.

"You ready?" Keith asked Pidge.

"I was born ready" Pidge said and placed his card inside the morpher and so did Keith.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they shouted and then were completely suited up. Keith and then grasped onto the hilts of their power swords and removed them from their belts.

"Engage power sword!" they said in unison and their green and red glowing blades came from the gold lion head on the tops of the hilt.

"Rangers, fight" Carter commanded, and the two rangers began dueling with their swords. Red and green sparks emitted from the blades whenever they collided with one another and whenever they blocked an attack. Carter smiled as he watched the two combat one another, Shiro, Lance, and Hunk were watching as well.

"You gotta admit, they're getting even better at it" Lance said. All the rangers had been improving greatly on their combat skills ever since their first battle against the Galra, and taking down Sendak.

"Yeah, I love the angles they attack and defend from. The more we learn new techniques, the more ready we are to face the Galra" Hunk added in agreement to Lance's previous statement. Shiro didn't say anything and just looked as if he was staring at the wall, watching Keith and Pidge fight he began having bad memories replay in his head like a terrible movie he just couldn't forget, or a song playing on repeat on the radio. Flashbacks of him being forced to fight for the Galra's entertainment in a large arena flashed before his eyes every time the power swords' blades touched one another.

"Shiro? You alright? You've been awfully quiet" Hunk asked. Shiro snapped out of his trance and looked to Hunk.

"Yeah, j-just don't worry about me, alright?" Shiro told him.

"Stop!" Carter signaled. Both red and green rangers stopped their combat match and then powered down, their suits and swords disappearing.

"Alright rangers, that's enough power sword practice for today. Now let's have lunch" Carter said leading them all out of the room.

"Oh yeah, you took those words right outta my mouth, Carter" Hunk said cheerfully at the mention of food.

"I second that, my good friend" Lance said, following Carter and Hunk outside. Pidge and Keith said nothing and just followed them, but Pidge stopped walking when he noticed Shiro wasn't leaving with them.

"Shiro, what's wrong?" He asked. Shiro gasped in surprise and jumped where he stood.

"Oh uh, yeah. Just zoned out for a moment" Shiro said as he was now walking with his fellow ranger out of the training room.

"That happen often?" the green ranger asked.

"Increasingly, today" Shiro answered plainly. Once all of them got to the kitchen, Coran came to the table wearing an apron that said 'Kiss the Cook' and was carrying a red plastic bowl with a green gooey substance that was in the shape of giant maggots.

"Holy Quiznak! What is that!?" Lance asked, repulsed at the sight and smell of the dish that stood before him. Pidge then just jumped behind Shiro.

"Uh, guys. I think what ever is in that bowl just moved" Pidge pointed out.

"This is one of the Altean's finest culinary delights. It's Koltar, with a few hints of viper-fish guts" Coran said, licking his lips in delight and held it out for everyone to help themselves to. Nobody wanted any, but Hunk was brave enough to pick one out of the bowl and took a bite. Hunk then threw it away and ran to the sink and barfed out what remained of it.

"Tastes like five month old cow meat" Hunk said before he threw up again.

"I'm not even gonna ask how you know what five month old cow meat tastes like" Keith said with a disturbed look on his face.

"Your loss, Hunk. Dig in everyone!" Coran cheered.

"Uh, no thank you. I'm just gonna order a pizza for pick-up" Pidge said while walking over to the phone.

"Oh, can I have onions?" Lance asked.

"Pineapple for me!" Hunk added.

"I'll have some bell peppers" Keith said.

"Sure thing. Shiro, what kinda toppings you want on the pizza?" Pidge asked. Shiro just shook his head after Pidge asked him the question, he had zoned out and had another flashback again, only it was the cry of a crew member he was captured with. All he remembered was 'I'll never see my family again' and then Pidge's voice snapped him out of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Can I please have some mushrooms?" Shiro asked.

"Alright, onions, mushrooms, pineapple and bell peppers. I guess I'm gonna have olives on mine" Pidge said before he picked up the phone and began dialing but stopped halfway through.

"Wait a minute. Carter, want any pizza?" Pidge asked.

"No thanks I'm fine. I'm just gonna have some leftover chicken from the fridge" Carter said. And with that out of the way, Pidge dialed the number for the pizza place and began placing the orders.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Inside one of the detention cells on board the ship, Haggar entered it and found a large male Galra completely torn to shreds. He only had one arm, and his other arm and legs were completely severed from the rest of his body, he was floating around inside the fluids of a healing tank.

"How are you, today my mighty gladiator?" she asked. He didn't respond and just stared at her from the inside of the tank.

"It comes to my understanding you wish to have your revenge against the so-called 'Champion' who caused you to be like this, correct?" she asked, piquing his interest. He nodded underneath the breathing mask that was placed securely on his face.

"Well now, thanks to what I have planned for you, you will get that chance. Destroy the Power Rangers and you shall have your sweet revenge" Haggar told the Gladiator.

"I... accept" a wounded voice came from the Gladiator's mouth, causing the witch to smile.

"Good, then let us begin" she said before she called forth a hover-gurney and flipped a switch to drain the tank of it's healing fluids and placed the Gladiator's fragile and torn body on top of it.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Pidge had just come back with the pizzas. One was half olives and half pineapple, second was half bell peppers and half onions, and the third was half cheese and half mushrooms.

"Pizza's here guys. Dig in everyone!" He said, placing the boxes on the table and got paper plates out for everyone to help themselves to whenever they got their pizza.

"My god, this is so good" Hunk said with tears of happiness in his eyes.

"It's been forever since I've had pizza this good" Pidge added with cheese dripping from the side of his mouth.

"The Garrison cafeteria never allowed pizza. Boy have I missed this" Lance said, cherishing every bite he took of the pizza.

"Nothing tastes better on pizza than bell peppers" Keith said after swallowing a bite of his own pizza.

"Yeah, right, everyone knows pineapple pizza is the ultimate gift from heaven" Hunk said as he helped himself to yet another slice.

"Oh come on, onions make everything taste good, especially pizza" Lance objected as he was almost down to the garlic bread crust of his own pizza.

"Um, excuse me, but it is oh so obvious that olives are the greatest pizza topping of all time" Pidge said as he licked his fingers clean of any taste of that delicious pizza that remained on them.

"Hey Allura, want some?" Hunk asked, offering a slice of regular cheese pizza with nothing on it to the Altean princess. She seemed confused and stared at the slice for a few seconds.

"What is it exactly?" she asked.

"It's pizza. One of the simple joys of Earth" Lance said. Allura picked up the slice and took a small bite out of the tip and her eyes widened and lit up.

"So... good" and she began eating faster than ever before. Everyone was enjoying themselves and trying their hardest not to laugh at Allura's reaction to trying human food, Shiro on the other hand barely touched his pizza, and Hunk took notice of it and began tapping the black ranger on the shoulder, but no response came.

"Hey, Shiro, are you alright? You've hardly touched your pizza" Hunk asked. Shiro was now suffering through another flashback, and began remembering how he was tortured, strapped to a gurney and was probed with needles and electrocuted with purple lighting that came from several medical tools used for torturing prisoners.

"Earth to Shiro! Come in Shiro!" Lance shouted into his ear which not only snapped him out of his flashback but fell backwards out of his chair. Everyone glared down at Lance for what he did.

"Nice, Lance" Keith said giving Lance a death-glare. Allura ran over and helped Shiro up off the floor.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just zoned out is all" Shiro said, not wanting to discuss what he went through as a prisoner of the Galra with Allura, Coran, and the other rangers.

"You've been zoning out a lot today. I'm starting to think you're wrapped up in your own little world a little too much sometimes" Coran added.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again" Shiro apologized. The alarms then started going off and everyone looked up to the ceiling.

"All rangers report to the portal room! All rangers report to the portal room!" the female robotic voice shouted throughout the room. Everyone just dropped their pizza and ran off to where they were asked to be, with Allura and Coran following right behind them. Once there, Carter was on the main computer looking at video-feed of a large Galra ship.

"Rangers, this kind of ship is used for keeping prisoners. I have a feeling there are gonna be at least a couple hundreds of prisoners on board. I want you all to infiltrate the ship and release every last prisoner on board" Carter explained.

"How? Won't they be able to detect if there's an intruder on board?" Shiro asked.

"Not exactly. I can hack into the security systems and shut down the surveillance cameras, replacing them with a still shot of the hallways. Once all cameras have been hacked, you'll be completely invisible to them" Carter told them. Pidge liked the sound of that.

"Hmm, it could work. But how to we get on board?" Pidge asked.

"All I gotta do is lock onto the ship's current location and just like that, you'll be teleported on board undetected" Carter answered before he began typing rapidly on the keyboard and soon after pressing the big green 'Enter' key on the board, the wormhole opened up.

"Rangers, you know what to do" he said, and all the rangers ran right into the wormhole and it shut down as soon as every last one went through.

"You think they can handle a mission of this magnitude? Taking on a squadron of Galra is one thing, but rescuing prisoners with an insane amount of enemies with the risk of being fired at every few seconds is completely another" Allura pointed out.

"You just have to believe in them. The powers of the lions with guide them throughout their mission. And whatever it is Zarkon has guarding that ship, or whoever he and Haggar send to try and destroy them, I assure you that they will prevail without a doubt" Carter told him.

"You sure seem very confident in the abilities of Power Rangers" Coran told him.

"Of course I am. I used to be one you know" he answered, which surprised both Alteans.

"You were?" she asked.

"Yup, Lightspeed Rescue red ranger. Me and a few others were selected to become rangers because of our incredible skills to fight an invading army of demons" Carter explained.

"Well, if you used to be a ranger, why aren't you fighting with them?" asked Coran.

"My job right now is not to fight. For now my job is to train these new rangers. When the time comes, if we ever come across a difficult challenge or crisis, I will join them in the fight. These is still power left in me yet" Carter told them while turning around back to the computer and began hacking into the ship's security systems and the cameras.

 **A/N: There you have it, part one of chapter two. I figured the rangers should have some time to act like humans instead of the galaxy's only survival for a small while, they are still just teenagers after all. And we got a glimpse of what Haggar is gonna send the rangers' way during their mission to free the prisoners. And what is going on with Shiro? Constantly zoning out and having flashbacks? I promise you it will prove to be most helpful when they face their next great foe. More to come in part two, please review, thanks!**


	5. Gladiator's Revenge II

**A/N: And here we are with yet another chapter of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. In part one of the new chapter, we got to see the rangers get to be normal pizza and that Shiro's been having flashbacks and zoning out way too often which concerns the others. And Haggar has come up with a new plan to destroy the rangers, by rebuilding the Gladiator that Shiro destroyed during his time as a prisoner. For this update, we watch as the rangers embark on a mission to a Galra prison ship to free any prisoners that may be on board. Let's dive into part two shall we? Enjoy!**

The wormhole took the rangers inside a storage hanger, and inside was nothing but large tanks with glowing fluids inside them.

"Looks like we've made it" Shiro said, looking all around. Keith walked over to the tanks and stared into the fluids bubbling inside them.

"What is this?" He asked aloud.

"I don't know, but we don't have time to find out. We gotta get every last prisoner off this ship and to the escape pods" Pidge said before pressing a button on the side of his gauntlet.

"Carter, we're on board. How's it going with the security system?" asked Pidge through the built in communicator he had built into his morph gauntlet.

"Almost there. They're shutting down in five, four, three, two, one. Cameras are down, good luck guys" Carter said before the transmission was disconnected. Keith then walked ahead of the others and peeked left and right from the doorway and turned back to the others.

"The halls are empty here, but keep on the lookout for any of those sentries like the ones we fought on Arus" Keith told them.

"I think we should split up. We'll cover more ground that way" Shiro suggested.

"Good idea" Keith said. Before everyone went their separate ways on the ship, Pidge spoke up.

"Wait, I'm going with Shiro" He said.

"What? No, I just said we need to split up" Shiro interjected.

"You were on the Kerberos mission right? The other two pilots you were with were my father and brother! If they're on this ship, I have to find them. You know know about these ships better than anyone so I need your help to find my family!" Pidge said. Shiro then began remembering bits and pieces of his captivity again, and remembered that the other two who were on board the Kerberos mission when he was captured were Sam Holt and his son, Matt. He remembered that Sam was taken somewhere distant while Matt was forced to fight for the entertainment of the Galra like he was.

"Sam and Matt were your father and brother?" asked Shiro.

"Yes, and I'm not gonna stop until I find them. Are you with me or not?" Pidge asked with a demanding tone in his voice. Shiro then began feeling a heavy feeling in his heart, he knew that Pidge without a doubt missed his family for a long time, and wanted them back just to hug them and tell them that he loved them.

"Alright, you can come with me" Shiro said, making Pidge give a sly grin.

"Let's go everyone. We'll meet back here as soon as all the prisoners are freed" Keith ordered before all of them split up and went down different hallways.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Haggar had just finished the procedure on the Gladiator. What was once the nearly destroyed Galra warrior had been transformed into something that was no longer flesh and blood, but metal and oil. The chest was bulky and had three small vents on the left and sides of it's chest, they were glowing purple with a plasma substance inside it which kept it alive. It's head was now covered with a metal shell that had now had a two eyes underneath a visor, one was mechanical and the other was an actual eye, as well as a spike in the middle of his head. One arm was littered with plasma tubes on it's shoulder that were connected to a large purple glowing battery latched to it's back while the other was in the shape of a large cylinder with only three fingers.

"It is completed. My Robeast is completed" Haggar said before she pressed a button and freed it from the gurney. The Robeast stood up and made menacing breathing sounds from the vents on it's chest.

"I promised you revenge and now you shall have it. All we need to do is locate the rangers is all" Haggar said as she gently stroked the side of it's face. The door behind the witch opened and she turned around to see a Galra soldier running towards her.

"Haggar, we've located the rangers. A sentry has reported they saw one of them leading prisoners towards an escape pod on board a prisoner transfer ship close by the Balmera close to Arus" the soldier reported. This made Haggar smile and turn to the Robeast.

"Did you hear that? Your revenge is coming more sooner than expected" the witch told it before she lead it to a large shuttle-pod which sealed itself completely shut once the Robeast stepped inside it. Haggar pressed a series of buttons and the pod was sent flying down a shaft and into space. Once outside the ship, the booster rockets on the bottom activated and it began piloting it's way to the ship.

 **-Back on the Galra Ship-**

An hour had passed since all the rangers had split up and they had just gotten about all the prisoners to escape pods. Pidge had asked a majority if them if they ever saw an elder human man, or a boy who looked exactly like him, but they said they did not and left Pidge feeling disappointed and feeling like he was failing them. After the final escape pod was released into the atmosphere, Shiro saw how sad Pidge was looking and placed his robotic prosthetic on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we're gonna find them eventually. I promise you, Katie" he told him, which made Pidge jump. Shiro knew that Matt didn't have a brother, but a sister named Katie. Katie was heartbroken when she heard of the disappearance of her brother and father and wasn't satisfied with the answer given saying that it was shuttle crash which caused them to go missing. She kept on breaking into the Galaxy Garrison flight school for answers and got caught at every attempt she took to find the truth, she ended up being forbidden from ever returning. In order to infiltrate the school, she cut her hair, got fake glasses, and changed her name to a boy's name.

"H-How did you?" Pidge asked.

"Matt spoke highly of you. And lemme say, your brother is very brave and I promise you we'll find him" Shiro answered. Pidge began feeling her eyes glisten with tears and hugged her fellow ranger.

"And don't worry, I won't tell the other rangers. You can tell them when you feel you're ready" he said in a very comforting manner.

"T-Thank you" she said sobbing. Once Shiro used his robotic hand to wipe her tears away, they began running towards the storage closet where they had been teleported before.

"Everyone get all the prisoners off?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, you find your family Pidge?" Hunk asked. The question only made Pidge feel tears well up in her eyes and Shiro placed an arm around her and held her against his side for comfort.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry" Hunk said apologetically.

"Don't worry, we'll find them eventually. Now let's phone Carter and tell him we're done here" Keith said. The door shut and everyone looked behind them to see a massive army of sentries with one Galra commander standing in front of them.

"So these are the Power Rangers that Zarkon was talking about? They look like nothing but puny little bugs to me. And I crush bugs!" the commanded insulted.

"Well you may seem to forget that some bugs sting. Ready?" Keith said taking his card out his pocket.

"Ready!" the others said, whipping out their power cards and placing them inside the gauntlets.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they chanted together and once again they were morphed.

"With the strength of the Earth, Astro Force Yellow Ranger!" Hunk shouted before detaching his power sword hilt from his belt and the blade extended from the golden lion head's mouth.

"With the freedom of the sky, Astro Force Black Ranger!" Shiro said before activating his own power sword.

"With the grace of nature, Astro Force Green Ranger!" Pidge said, only she held her sword so that the blade was on the bottom except on the top.

"With the purity of water, Astro Force Blue Ranger!" Lance sounded off and held out his sword so that the blade was pointed towards them.

"With the ferocity of fire, Astro Force Red Ranger" Keith said, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands instead of one like the other rangers did.

"Power Rangers, Astro Force!" they cheered in unison.

"You don't know who you're dealing with! Get them!" the Galra commander shouted, and all the sentries charged at the rangers with their blasters firing repeatedly at them.

"Remember your ranger training, deflect the blasts!" Keith told them. All of the other rangers then began swinging their blades at the blasts to bounce the beams back to the sentries and destroying them as well.

"This feels like I'm in a 'Star Wars' movie" Lance said before he deflected two beams at once and took out two sentries.

"Now's not the time to pretend to be a Jedi, Lance!" Pidge scolded just as a Sentry got close to her and she cut the head off and the arm that held the blaster for good measure.

"You're no fun" Lance retorted in a pouty tone. Carter then began speaking to them through their helmets again.

"Rangers, your power swords contain another power. On the hilt there should be a small black switch. Power your blades down, and flip that switch" Carter advised them.

"Why? What's it gonna do?" Hunk asked.

"No time to explain, just do it" Carter responded. All the rangers looked to one another and nodded to each other and powered off their blades and flipped the switches on the hilts. They were now no longer hilts but a pistol that looked like a Nerf Falcon-fire dart gun. The guns were the color of gold but inside the chambers were glowing colored darts that represented their chosen element.

"What are these things?" Shiro asked, looking down at his gun.

"These are your element blasters. Each bullet fires an elemental attack on your enemy. And no need for reloading, it's never-ending ammo" Carter explained.

"Alright, let's see what these bad boys can do" Keith said. All the rangers then ran towards the other sentries that remained and began firing at them.

Keith's gun fired red fireballs that caused the sentry to completely explode into tiny pieces.

"Hmph, not bad" Keith said as he admired the damage the blaster's fiery bullets did.

Hunk's blaster fired mud balls which expanded until whatever they clung to was encased in a large mud bubble.

"That's right! Eat mud, Galra scum!" Hunk called out as he fired more mud balls at the sentries.

Shiro's blaster fired spheres of wind which expanded into tornadoes. One shot and a large tornado destroyed about ten sentries before it disbanded and disappeared, leaving behind nothing but parts and their blasters.

"Should have paid attention to the weather channel when they said it was gonna be windy today" Shiro taunted before shooting another blast.

Lance's blaster shot out a powerful stream of water, similar to the kind of stream of water that would be shot out of a fire-hose. Once a sentry was hit by the water, they either completely fell to pieces or their circuits were fried to a crisp and they blew up.

"Here, have a big drink! It's important to stay hydrated you know!" Lance taunted as he fired another powerful water stream.

Pidge's plaster shot out green energy blasts which caused wherever they hit to become surrounded by large tree branches and vines which completely impaled the robotic sentries and whacked against their bodies, causing whichever part of them was his to become detached.

"Mom did always tell me I had the green thumb" Pidge joked to herself while she kept on firing more blasts at them. Now all the sentries were down and the commander remained.

"No! That's every sentry on the ship!" the commander yelled in disbelief.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Lance asked Keith.

"Combine our blasters?" Keith responded.

"Took the words right out of my mouth, red ranger" said Lance.

"Let's do it!" Shiro said. They held their blasters close to Keith's and they all disappeared. What was now in Keith's hands was a large sleek silver gun that looked like a Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 gun.

"Infinity cannon! Fire!" the rangers shouted together in unison. From the barrel of the gun fired a large white beam of energy that shot the commander right in the chest. The commander's body turned entirely to glass and fell forwards, causing him to be shattered to pieces.

"We did it guys!" Pidge cheered. The Infinity cannon disbanded and all rangers had their blasters back, which turned back into the hilts of their power swords.

"Mission accomplished guys, let's go home" Keith said. Just as they were about to tell Carter to pull up another wormhole, the whole ship began to shake and the wall behind them exploded which caused all rangers to fall to the floor.

"What was that!?" Hunk asked as he struggled to stand back up.

"I don't think our work's done here just yet" Shiro said as he noticed out of a large cloud of smoke came the Robeast which Haggar had created.

"What is that thing?" Pidge asked.

"I dunno. It's not like the sentries we faced before" Lance asked.

"You're right, it's not. Looks way more stronger than a normal sentry" Keith said. Shiro stared deep into it's eyes like he knew the Robeast from somewhere before.

 **A/N: There you have it! Pidge is revealed to be a girl, the rangers have unlocked their element blasters and the Infinity cannon too. But now there's a new threat to face, the Robeast turned Gladiator who wants nothing more than to take his revenge on the Black Ranger. Part three is where we get to the big fight, and the final part of this chapter. More to come in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	6. Gladiator's Revenge III

**A/N: The Power Rangers Astro Force is back for a third part of their newest adventure. In the last part, Pidge was revealed to be a girl named Katie Holt when she told Shiro that her father and brother were the ones taken captive with him on the Kerberos mission. And a new power is discovered when they unlock their element blasters and use it to defeat several Galra sentry bots. Right now, it's time to face the Robeast that Haggar had created for fighting the rangers from the Gladiator Shiro once defeated. Now let's get right into part three, shall we? Enjoy!**

The Robeast raised it's cylinder-shaped arm and the three fingers began spinning around the edge to create a large purple energy ball.

"That's not good" Hunk said.

"Duck!" Keith told everyone and he rangers ducked onto the floor and the sphere was tossed at them but missed.

"It missed!" Lance said, but he spoke to soon. The sphere came back up from behind them and knocked them back onto the floor just as they stood up and the sphere hovered right above the arm which it was shot from.

"Ow, that hurt" Lance groaned as he struggled to stand back up. Pidge was helped back up from the floor by Shiro and the others stood up fine by themselves.

"What is this thing?" Hunk asked the others.

"I dunno, but whatever it is, it's Galra" Shiro answered.

"I don't care what it is, it's going down" Lance snarled before he picked up his hilt from his belt and clicked the black switch and in it's place was now his element blaster.

"Engage element blasters!" the other rangers said, readying their weapons for combat against the Robeast. Their hilts flashed in red, yellow, black, and green before the blasters appears in their hands.

"Rangers, attack from different angles. It can't attack all of us at once" Keith advised.

"Good idea" Pidge said before setting her blaster at the right angle to fire.

"Worth a shot" Shiro added.

"I say we go for it" Lance said.

"Rangers, attack!" Keith ordered and the other followed him running towards the Robeast. Hunk tried shooting his mud balls first, but the Robeast threw his sphere again and the mud balls completely disintigrated at the first touch of it and it struck him right in his chest, sending him flying backwards.

"Hunk!" Lance shouted. Angry at how the Robeast struck his friend, Lance held up his blaster and fired a intense stream of water at his enemy, but it noticed and called the sphere back to it, which clashed right into Lance and caused him to fall as well.

"Hey robo-butt! You could use a little more green in your diet!" Pidge called out before shooting at the floor and causing several roots to burst out from underneath the Robeast's feet. This didn't stop it at all, and the Robeast used it's sphere to burn the roots to a crisp and break itself free before grabbing Pidge by the neck and slamming her against the wall.

"Let him go!" Keith called out before shooting a stream of fire at the battery pack on the Robeast's back, causing it to light up in an orange aura and emitting steam before it lost power in the arm which held the sphere and let Pidge go. Shiro ran to the green ranger's aid.

"You alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, let's just help Keith" Pidge answered. Both Rangers then ran to aid Keith but were knocked down to the floor when the Robeast whacked it's cylinder arm against their bodies. Now the enemy stood still and held it's arm up with the sphere still over it, Shiro gasped to himself and saw that it was the Gladiator from his past.

"Guys, I recognize this thing" he said, getting the other rangers' attention.

"What?" they all asked in unison.

"I fought it back when I was held captive. I know how to beat it" Shiro said.

"Alright, just tell us what we have to do" Keith told him.

"After three throws, it stays still like that to charge it's sphere. Attack the air vents and the battery on it's back, without a doubt it'll render it completely weak without a power source" Shiro explained, the plan made perfect sense to them.

"Aright, everyone focus on the chest vents and the battery. Wait for the third strike for your attack to be effective" Keith told everyone as he now switched from element blaster to power sword. Pidge did so as well, but Lance, Hunk, and Shiro still held onto their blasters. Now the sphere was completely powered up, and it tossed it at the rangers.

"First strike! Duck!" Pidge said before it got a chance to hit the other rangers and jumped forwards. Lance still fired water blasts at the Robeast while still in mid-air, but it was ineffective, and so were the mud balls fired from Hunk's blaster.

"Here comes the second strike! Get ready!" Shiro warned. Keith dodged it since he was the one most close to it and tried attacking it's chest multiple times to try and create a dent or a cut, but it didn't work. All the rangers knew their attacks couldn't do anything for now, and that they were only made as a distraction.

"The last one's coming up, brace yourselves guys!" Shiro warned. The Robeast then threw the orb a third time and all the rangers dodged on cue before it even touched them.

"Alright, now's our chance! Remember to aim for the vents and battery" Keith reminded them before they charged at the Robeast which now stood still. Hunk fired his element blaster at the vents and the mud expanded and expanded, blocking them up and preventing air from running through them.

"The vents are sealed! Keith, Pidge, attack the battery pack!" Shiro told them.

"On it!" Pidge acknowledged. Both red and green rangers ran up behind the Robeast and began slicing at the battery, several cuts were made which the Robeast couldn't have expected, it was built to be bullet-proof not blade-proof.

"Keith, the tubes. Cut those!" Pidge suggested.

"Gotcha" Keith placed both hands on his hilt and he felt power surging through his body into the blade.

"Power of fire!" he shouted, and the blade was now surrounded by flames. With one large attack, he cut through the battery again and the tubes connected from it to the arm which powered the sphere. With that last attack, the battery exploded and blew a large hole in the wall. Through the hole, the other rangers could see a Galra arena which they used to make prisoners fight to the death. The Robeast still stood, but with a large hole in it's back, and the vents were emitting black smoke from underneath the mud.

"It's still standing?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, but the good news is it's weak. I don't think it can take another attack" Shiro told them.

"Let's combine our swords and finish it off" Keith told them. Shiro, Lance, and Hunk had their blasters switch to their swords and had all their blades touching before they disappeared into Keith's and the Infinity blade appeared in his hands.

"Infinity sword! Power strike!" all the rangers shouted together, and Keith made a slashing motion at the Robeast, and a large wave of white energy slashed right through the chest and caused their enemy to fall backwards and making it explode into smoke. But out of the Robeast's body fell out a purple Galra crystal that fell into the center of the arena.

"Guys, what's that?" Hunk asked, pointing down to the crystal.

"It looks like some kind of crystal" Pidge answered. The crystal began shaking and more crystals began surrounding it.

"I think something else is happening" Keith said as he watched the crystals grow taller and taller until it formed the shape of a creature. The crystal shell shattered to reveal the Robeast they once defeated, it had grown bigger and was in perfect condition to fight again. The return of the Robeast surprised all the other rangers when they saw that their fallen foe had grown bigger and fully repaired.

"Not good" Hunk squeaked.

"Nobody said anything about the bad guys growing bigger!" Pidge added in shock. A roar could be heard in the back of each ranger's head.

"Woah, did you guys hear that?" Lance asked.

"I heard it too. I think my lion's spirit was speaking to me" Shiro answered.

"I think I heard the same thing" Keith piped in.

"My lion was talking to me too" Pidge said. Soon, Carter spoke to them through their helmets.

"Rangers, the lions spoke to you because they know what it is you must do. Summon them, and they will aid you in battle in ways you could not imagine before" he told them.

"You really think it'll work?" Shiro asked.

"We have to. This time it won't be that much of a challenge since we know how to take it out" Keith told everyone, in addition to answering Shiro's question.

"Alright, let's do it" Lance agreed. All five rangers held their swords up in the air.

"Spirit of the lions, ascend!" they all shouted together and five colored energy beams made their way to the sky out of the roof of the arena. Once the beams were gone, the ship started to shake again and from right behind the Robeast, the lions burst out of the arena's ground and began attacking them with elemental attacks made from their muzzles and sending it flying to the other side of the arena.

"Wow!" Lance said in awe.

"So these are our lions?" Shiro asked.

"Must be, they do match our helmets after all" Hunk said.

"There's power in them I can feel it" Pidge added.

"They're just what we need to finish the job" Keith concluded with a smile underneath his ranger helmet.

"Only one thing left to do, put them together" Carter said through the headsets. All the rangers nodded and jumped towards their respective lion. They went right inside their mouths and landed inside a large control center similar to how the inside of a fighter jet back at the Garrison looked like, but this technology was beyond anything they've ever seen.

"Alright everyone, let's put this thing down for good!" Keith ordered.

"Form Mega-Zord!" all the rangers shouted in unison. The black lion's arms and legs folded inside it's waist, and the same happened with the other lions. The blue and yellow lion's heads bent forwards until they took the appearance of legs. As for the red and green lions, their necks slightly extended giving the appearance of fists and wrists. The arms and legs attached themselves to the black lion, which opened it's mouth to reveal a metal face with glowing yellow eyes.

"I can't believe this!" Pidge commented.

"Now this is just what we need" Shiro said. They then saw the Robeast stand back up and got ready to fire the sphere at the Mega-Zord.

"Alright guys, just like we did it before. Let's take 'em out" Keith said. The Robeast then shot the sphere towards them, and Lance and Keith pressed a button on their control pads with caused the Mega-Zord to start flying in the air due to the rocket boosters inside the legs. Once the Mega-Zord stood a few feet in the air, the sphere missed and returned to the Robeast.

"Only two left, then we attack" Keith reminded. The second time the sphere hit Pidge, used her controls to punch the sphere and make it bounce away and create a circle-sized crater in the wall before it returned to the arm.

"Alright, last one and then we can attack" Shiro told Keith, who nodded in agreement. All rangers had their eyes narrowed and deeply focused on the attack that was about to head their way.

"Guys, I have an idea. When the final attack comes, charge towards it and punch it towards it's chest" Lance piped in.

"Got it, just be ready to activate those rocket heels when the attack comes" Keith told Lance and Hunk, letting him know he was going through with his plan. The Robeast finally tossed the sphere at the Mega-Zord, and that's when Hunk and Lance activated the rockets and the Mega-Zord charged towards it while flying towards it in mid air.

"Pidge, punch it!" Keith commanded. Pidge shifted one of the levers forward the sphere and with all the might she could give into the attack, punched the sphere hard and sent it flying hard back at the Robeast. As Lance predicted, it hit the monster right in the chest and created a large tear in the chest, revealing it's circuitry and wiring.

"Hey, Lance, your plan worked!" Hunk congratulated.

"Now's our chance, let's attack!" Lance replied. Keith then detached his power sword hilt and stuck it inside a large circle in the side of the control panel, which looked similar to a key-hole and turned it to the right. Inside the right hand appeared a large sword, the blade made entirely of blue colored plasma.

"Power blade, engage!" the rangers shouted as the Mega-Zord charged towards the Robeast while it was charging the sphere. The blade went right through where the sphere attacked it's master's chest and right through the cables which connected the arm to the battery.

"It's powerless, the sphere's disappearing" Shiro observed. Keith then shifted both levers on the control panel and lunged the blade at the battery in a stabbing motion multiple times and made the entire battery explode on it's back. This time, the Robeast didn't survive the attack back and nothing remained of it but it's legs and it's torso which had it's wiring exposed. The legs soon fell forwards onto the arena's floor and they exploded.

"Alright! We did it! It's gone!" Keith cheered. The Mega-Zord disbanded and the lions disappeared and all the rangers were safely on the ground once more.

"Power down!" all the rangers said, and they reverted back to their normal forms, and took their power cards out their gauntlets and back into their vest pockets. Pidge then spoke into her gauntlet's communicator.

"Carter, we've finished it off. We're ready to go back" Pidge informed.

"Opening the wormhole now" Carter replied before a wormhole opened up into the wall behind them.

"Let's go home guys. I think it's safe to say our job here is done, for real this time" Hunk said, the others nodded in agreement with him and walked through the portal which took them back to the cave. Once they arrived back, Allura and Carter welcomed them back.

"Good job rangers. You took down a powerful foe, and unleashed the power of the Mega-Zord" Carter said saluting them military style.

"I'm just surprised we got out of that battle alive" Lance said running a hand through his hair and sighing in exhaustion.

"You piloted the Mega-Zord like a real pro, and I couldn't be more proud of my rangers than I am now" Carter replied.

"But we've only been rangers for two days" Pidge piped in.

"As true as that may be, you are progressing at an incredibly fast pace. You took down an agent of Zarkon, freed every last prisoner on the ship, and took down every single sentry too. I don't think I've ever seen any ranger learn to hone their powers that fast" Carter told them. Soon, a strange odor filled the air and everyone began sniffing it in.

"What's that smell?" Shiro asked.

"Oh, I think Coran's in the kitchen making something" Allura said, leading the others to the kitchen. Coran took a pizza dish out of the oven, and it had tiny little organs on it and some bacon.

"After realizing how much you like this 'Pizza' stuff, I've come up with a new topping idea. Maple glazed bacon and viper-fish guts" Coran said happily, showing them the pizza. All the rangers faces turned green and their cheeks puffed out and ran away out of the kitchen.

"More for me" Coran said before he began devouring the pizza with delight and happiness. Allura took a slice as well and ate it, smiling at the flavor, to her it was delicious.

"This is actually pretty good, Coran. I'm surprised the other rangers don't even wanna try it" Allura complimented.

"Their loss is our gain, your highness" Coran said with his mouth full of viper-fish gut pizza.

 **A/N: And this concludes the second chapter of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. We learned so much in this chapter, those flashbacks Shiro was having came to be of help in their fight, they learned how to unlock their element blasters, as well as how to summon the lions, and construct the Mega-Zord. And that Pidge, of course turned out to be a girl. Next chapter will be filled with more action and adventure for the Astro Force rangers. More to come in the next update, please review, thanks!**


	7. Follow the Leader I

**A/N: And now we have a new chapter for the Power Rangers: Astro Force. We've learned so many things from the last chapter, Pidge is a girl, the powers of the element blasters were unlocked, and so was the Mega-Zord. Now that new powers and secrets were revealed, let's see what lies in store for our Rangers shall we? Enjoy!**

All the other rangers inside the command center was asleep, except for Shiro. The black ranger was doing push-ups in the center of the room, sweat trickling down his forehead and he was gritting his teeth. All night long he had nightmares, bad memories replaying over and over in his head. He heard the voices of Pidge's brother and father calling out for him to help them when he was strapped to a table while his robotic arm was just being installed to replace the one they had cut off. They also shouted words like 'It's all your fault' and 'Why didn't you save us'? Even, 'They're all going to fail because of you!'. That last one really made Shiro feel guilty.

"Shiro?" a voice broke his concentration, and Shiro looked to see Pidge standing in the doorway wearing only a tank top, and black sweat-pants, her hair slightly messed up and fuzzy, and a toothbrush held tightly in her hand.

"Pidge? What are you doing here?" Shiro asked, now standing up and looking towards his fellow ranger.

"I was just on my way to take a shower. I figured the other guys would be trying to hog the bathroom when the woke up, so I set my alarm for an early start to try and get some of the warm water before Keith, Hunk, and Lance used it all up" Pidge explained.

"Oh. Well, you mind if I talk to you about something before you go in the bathroom?" asked Shiro. Pidge just sat on Shiro's bed and patted on the mattress space to her left to signal him to sit down next to her. The black ranger did exactly that and Pidge was waiting to listen to what Shiro had to say.

"I've been having nightmares. Nightmares about Matt and your father. They keep saying I failed them, but I was literally too weak to do anything to stop them from being taken. I feel like... well, like I failed them, and now I'm starting to feel like I failed you" Shiro explained. Pidge just placed a comforting arm over Shiro's shoulder.

"You didn't fail me, and it wasn't your fault. They took your arm and made you their own personal real life 'Operation' game. I never blamed you for what happened to them. I blame Zarkon and Zarkon alone" Pidge reassured him.

"I was the captain of the Kerberos mission, Matt and your father were my responsibility. It was my job to make sure nothing happened to them, and for one minute I left my guard down and then just like that we were taken" Shiro said, now shaking and clutching his knees.

"Shiro, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not the one to blame for what happened?" Pidge asked, but Shiro didn't answer.

"Well, I'll leave you alone for now. I swear that hot shower is calling my name" Pidge said before leaving the bedroom, and Shiro was alone in his room, thinking deeply about what the green ranger had told him.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Haggar had entered the laboratory along with Zarkon right by her side. Sitting on one of the table was a small raptor-like creature strapped to it with black straps.

"My emperor, the last champion we sent was a failure. He could not finish what he started with the black ranger. But now, I have a feeling this new creation of mine will put the rangers down for good" Haggar said.

"Elaborate, witch" Zarkon politely demanded. Haggar then pressed a button and revealed a hologram of a creature with the head of an angler fish, and long wide arms with several circles on it, as well as a red Galra chest guard on it, spikes on the shoulder and a green circular light in the middle.

"I call it Drazil. After I apply my magics to his chemistry, he can fire multiple laser beams out of his eyes, arms, and chest as well. The rangers will be too distracted dodging whatever Drazil fires at them to even bother attacking" Haggar explained. Zarkon gave a cruel and wicked smile at the thought of this.

"You have done well, Haggar. You may proceed with your experiments. Let me know when it will be ready to be sent into battle when we spot the rangers again" Zarkon ordered before he left the laboratory. Haggar then took out of one of the sleeves of her robe, a glowing green potion in the shape of a small squirt bottle and approached the baby Drazil on the table.

"We may begin now, my pet" Haggar said before applying a needle to the top of the bottle and injecting it into Drazil's neck which made it screech like a dog with a limping paw. Haggar smiled, not caring she was hurting the creature, only thinking about the downfall of the Power Rangers.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Carter was standing in front of the rangers who had just eaten breakfast, and taken showers when they woke up.

"The creature you faced on that ship was only the beginning. I have a feeling there may be more" Carter began.

"You think someone is making them?" Keith asked.

"Yes, without a doubt in my mind it's Haggar, the witch who corrupted Zarkon's mind and taught him dark magic" Carter said nodding in agreement with Keith's statement.

"I say bring them on. We can blow their sorry butts to pieces when we bust out the Mega-Zord and a few slashes of our swords, especially a few blasts from the element blasters. Pow pow pow!" Lance said, making gun sound effects, which made Hunk, Pidge, Keith, and Allura all face-palm themselves.

"It takes more than power swords, element blasters, and a giant robot to take down the Galra empire. The weapons are only as good as the one who wields them" Allura piped in.

"Allura is right. The weapons are not what make the Power Rangers, it's he who possesses the powers who do. Power is nothing without teamwork and virtuous hearts" Carter told them, he had a good point and the other rangers agreed with him.

"He's got a point, guys. We won that last fight only because we put our brains together and planned out everything. Next time we may not be as lucky as we were with our last mission" Shiro said to the others.

"Which is why if you are to fight more effectively as rangers, you're going to need a leader" Carter told them. Lance immediately began jumping up and down and raising his hand like a little kid in school, begging to be called on by his teacher to give an answer.

"Ohh ohh! Me! Me! I call dibs! I wanna be the leader!" Lance shouted. Hunk groaned, Pidge face-palmed herself, Keith growled in irritation, and Shiro just rolled his eyes at the blue ranger's childish behavior.

"I object! Lance is just gonna make us do all the hard work for him while he gets to do all the easy stuff!" Pidge exclaimed. Lance gasped in shock and got all up in her face.

"What!? No I don't!" Lance denied.

"Uh, yeah you do" Hunk said, in defense of Pidge's statement.

"Name one time!" Lance ordered.

"The eight-hundred word essay on flight safety last month. Hunk and I wrote the paper and the bibliography while you were too busy picking up girls on social media" Pidge said.

"Okay, then name another time" Lance said.

"You don't even pay attention when we're in the flight simulator. Hunk and I are operating everything while you kick your feet up onto the dashboard and crash into something every five seconds" Hunk added.

"All in favor of someone else being the leader, raise your hand" Carter said before raising up his own hand. Allura, Coran, Keith, Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk raised their hands.

"All in favor of Lance being the leader?" Carter then added before everyone lowering their arms and Lance raising his smiling nervously.

"Sorry Lance, the people have voted" Pidge said.

"What!? No fair! I want a do-over vote!" Lance demanded to Carter.

"You do realize that there are no such thing as do-over votes right?" Keith asked, pointing out the blue ranger's stupidity.

"What about Shiro?" Hunk asked. Shiro jumped in surprise at what the yellow ranger said.

"I agree, I think he's definitely leader material" Allura said with a gentle smile.

"He did know about the weaknesses of the monster we fought on that ship. He even knew all about the ship's hallways and architecture inside and out. If anyone should be leading the rangers, it should be Shiro" Pidge said smiling.

"I'm sorry, but I can't" Shiro said looking down to his boots in a somber tone.

"WHAT!?" they all exclaimed.

"I'm not cut out to be a leader. What happened with Pidge's family back on Kerberos proves that. I lost one crew and I swear I'm not gonna lose another" Shiro told them, looking away from his friends.

"Who said you were going to lose us? We're Power Rangers, we can handle ourselves in battle" Lance said.

"Just let Keith be the leader. He's the red ranger, and last I checked the red ranger was always the leader" Shiro told them.

"Not always the case. The pink ranger lead the Time Force rangers, the red ranger was the second in command" Pidge pointed out, the others staring at her.

"What? I may or may not have been studying past ranger incarnations before I go to bed. And I gotta admit, I like those 'Jungle Fury' rangers a lot, especially the purple wolf ranger" Pidge said raising her arms up in defense.

"Shiro, I get that you're feeling guilty over what happened years ago and that you feel like you're not ready to be a leader again, but your teammates say otherwise. Besides, they look up to you, and say you know the Galra empire better than anyone" Carter said, trying to persuade him.

"Carter's right, Shiro, you're the best shot we have at beating the Galra since you know all about their weapons and tactics better than any of us" Keith said, joining Carter in trying to get Shiro to realize that he's the best choice of being their leader.

"I'm sorry you guys, but like I said, I'm not cut out to be a leader. It's too much responsibility" Shiro said. The master computer began going off and the others ran up to it. Carter pulled up an image showing a large planet with sinkholes, caverns, and Galra sentries and posts all over the place.

"Looks like the Galra have just turned a Balmera into their own personal mining facility" Coran said.

"And there are hardly any crystals growing around it, the Galra are killing it" Allura added.

"So the longer they harvest and abuse the planet, it'll be destroyed?" Keith asked.

"Most likely" Carter said before prepping the wormhole generator to take them to the coordinates.

"Alright. Man up, rangers! It's mission time!" Keith said before Pidge stopped them.

"Wait! There's something I need to tell you, and I feel like this may change the way that you think about me. I can't 'Man Up', I'm a girl. Well, technically I CAN man up, but it's just actually a figure of speech, I don't have to actually be a man to..." Lance, who was in shock from the confession interrupted and shouted.

"What!? You're a girl!?" he asked, making Pidge jump where she stood. Shiro walked up to her with a small smile and his robot hand on her shoulder.

"I'm proud of you, and I'm glad that you told us. This will bring us closer together as a team now that you've let it out" Shiro told her, making her smile and nod to him.

"Alright, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's go save a planet!" Hunk said before running in through the portal first and the others following behind them. Once the wormhole closed, it was just Carter, Allura, and Coran in the control room together.

"Carter, are you sure Shiro will come to his senses and lead the other rangers?" Coran asked.

"I know he will. Some rangers take a while before they realize they're leaders" Carter said before taking out a book and opening it to reveal a golden bird surrounded by flames sitting on a mountain.

"What are you doing?" Allura asked, peeking over Carter's shoulder, which made him jump in surprise from his seat and shut the book.

"Nothing, just something I'm reading for fun" Carter said before putting it away and going back to the computer to try and communicate with the other rangers. Allura left it alone, but wondered why Carter was so protective of that book, and why he was looking at that page specifically for a long time, from how she noticed how he stared deeply into the illustration. But she figured that for now it was best to leave it alone and not bug Carter about it, and maybe in time he would reveal why he was.

 **A/N: Whoo! What an update am I right?. Pidge has finally revealed her true gender and Shiro is denying to lead the others. Now, it's time for a quest to a Balmera to prevent it's destruction and to save it's people. I wanted to reference 'Jungle Fury' because that was personally my favorite Power Rangers season, and the theme song to that is catchy too. More to come in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	8. Follow the Leader II

**A/N: Now, we move onto part two of 'Follow the Leader', the next chapter in the 'Power Rangers: Astro Force' saga. Shiro refuses to lead the other rangers even though everyone else (besides Lance) thinks he should. Now, it's time to begin their mission to the Balmera to save it's people, and hopefully get it to flourish back to it's previous state before the Galra took over. Will Shiro assume the position of being a leader? Or will it take more than a speech from Carter to get him to come to his senses? Let's find out! Enjoy!**

The rangers were teleported into one of the caverns through the wormhole. Once the wormhole closed itself, everyone looked up to see the sky from where they stood.

"Carter, why did the wormhole take us to one of the caverns? We should have been placed right above it" Pidge said through her gauntlet communicator.

"I couldn't risk letting them see you on the surface. You're gonna have to work your way up there and come up with some sort of plan to take every last tower and sentry down" Carter responded.

"But what about the planet's condition? There's gotta be something we can do to restore it right?" Hunk asked into Pidge's gauntlet.

"Now that, I can't help you with. But I'm sure you guys will come up with something. Good luck you five" Carter said before he ceased the communication between him and the other rangers.

"Great, now we're stuck down here without a plan" Lance huffed with his arms crossed against his chest and kicked the dirt in annoyance.

"Shiro, what do we do?" Keith asked. Shiro just gasped and turned away from the others.

"Guys, I've already told you that I'm not meant to be a leader" Shiro said. Soon, they heard someone silently calling out to them. Looking to their left, the rangers saw two light gray-skinned aliens tusks on the sides of their ears signaling with their fingers to come forward towards them. Curious, everyone walked up to them.

"Um, may we help you?" Keith asked.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" the first one asked, clearly it was male.

"We got here through a wormhole. My name is Shiro, and this is Hunk, Keith, Pidge, and Lance. We're the Power Rangers" Shiro said, introducing all of them. The aliens looked confused.

"Power Rangers?" the other one asked, it was female.

"Yeah, haven't you heard of us?" Lance asked.

"No, can't say we have" the male answered.

"My name is Shay, and this is my brother, Rax. We live inside the caves of this Balmera" the female said, introducing themselves.

"We've come to free this planet from the Galra's iron grip" Hunk said, being as gently as he could with Shay, holding her hands in a reassuring manner. Both Shay and Hunk stared into one another's eyes and they felt an instant connection. Rax slapped the yellow ranger's hands out of his sister's and stepped in front of us.

"Not going to happen, 'Power Ranger'. The Galra have eyes everywhere, and if they catch us we'll be forced to work for them endlessly for more crystals" Rax protested.

"The Galra are killing your home, how can you just stand aside and watch it happen?" Pidge asked Rax.

"If you don't fight for the only planet you call home, you could die along with it" Keith piped in.

"Not our problem, mullet" Rax said, making Keith angry.

"Mullet!? I oughta yank those tusks right out of the side of your head!" Keith said, getting ready to attack Rax, but Lance and Pidge held him back.

"Forgive him, he's kind of a hothead" Hunk said to Shay in an apologetic manner.

"Come with us, we will make sure you are well rested and given good food to provide you nutrition" Shay said, taking Hunk's hand and leading him down one of the many cave routes inside the large cavern they stood in, with the others following them. Little did they know, a Galra sentry patrolling the caverns saw them and overheard the whole thing. It ran back to it's base to tell it's commander about the Power Rangers and their presence on the Balmera.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Haggar had just now placed the finishing touches on Drazil. Now the small raptor-like alien which she started off with before looked exactly like the hologram she had showed Zarkon, and he lied on a large table unconscious underneath a large glowing purple light that looked similar to an operating light in a human hospital. The witch turned around to see her emperor standing there and watching as the creature was finally completed and ready to create destruction, and destroy the Power Rangers forever.

"How goes the construction of our newest Robeast?" Zarkon asked.

"The transformation is completed. All I need to do now is apply as much power as I can to pump life back into it once more" Haggar replied.

"Good, continue. I want him prepared for whenever we hear of the rangers' whereabouts" Zarkon said before he left the laboratory, and Haggar was alone once more with her newest creation. Once alone, she walked over to a control panel and pulled the big lever in the middle, causing the light above it to become electrified with purple lightning. The electrical surges channeled from the light and into the body of Drazil.

"Let the power surge throughout your body. Let the anger flow through your veins. And let nothing stand in your way, if you can do that, then the Power Rangers are as good as dead" Haggar said with an evil sickening smile. The small circles on it's arms began lighting up green as well as the one on his chest. Lastly, the eyes lit green and roared to the sky like a T-Rex would roar. Haggar had then pulled the lever and the electrical surges ceased. Once they stopped, she approached Drazil and began caressing it's head like a dog, and it began purring.

"Yes, you are ready. The rangers will bow before you once they are broken and powerless" Haggar said to it while continuing to stroke the beast's head. A Galra then entered the room.

"My lady, one of our sentries on a Balmera has discovered the presence of the Power Rangers" he said. This made her smile and take Drazil's hand, leading it to a pod, and entered coordinates to the Balmera. Drazil was now off to take on the rangers.

 **-Back on the Balmera-**

Hunk sat on a small rock with Shay while the other rangers socialized and had dinner with her family. Their meal was soup made by her and Rax's grandmother.

"So, what's it like? Up on the surface, I mean" Shay asked.

"You mean you've never been up on the surface?" Hunk replied.

"No, we stay down here for most of the time. If we dare go up onto the surface, the Galra would most definitely enslave us and make us aid them in destroying our own planet" Shay said sadly. Hunk felt bad, it was knowing things like this that made him realize the importance of being a Power Ranger, protecting others and letting them know they didn't have to be afraid of the Galra when they could fight back and take their world back from them.

"Shay, I promise you that we're gonna free you and your people. The Galra are never gonna bother you again once we're done with all of them" Hunk said after placing a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. The yellow ranger's kind and comforting words made her smile and pull him into a hug, he was taken aback by the sudden hug.

"Thank you, Hunk" Shay whispered into his ear. Hunk returned the hug, blushing and smiling. While Hunk and Shay talked and hugged, Shiro was talking with her grandmother.

"So you mean to tell me there isn't any other way up to the surface?" Shiro asked.

"Not one that doesn't lead to you being captured, I'm afraid" she answered.

"What about secret tunnels? Don't you have any of those?" Shiro continued asking questions, he knew there couldn't be no way to make it up to the surface.

"The only other way is to climb up the walls of the cavern we first found you in. But, the very minute you reach the top, the Galra will notice and try to kill you" grandmother said to him.

"That's a chance we're willing to take" Keith piped in.

"What do we do once we reach the top, Shiro?" Pidge asked. Shiro had no idea how to respond, and just remained silent. Grandmother took his hand and lead him away from the red and green rangers.

"My child, why do you deny your responsibilities as your team's leader?" grandmother asked. Shiro looked down to his feet with somber eyes.

"Because I already lost one team to the Galra, and I fear that I'll repeat that mistake again with this one" Shiro said before he pulled out his black lion card and stared into it.

"Sometimes I even wonder why the black lion even chose me" Shiro admitted before he felt grandmother's hand gently touch his chin and raise his head so that his eyes met hers once again.

"You fear you will repeat the past, but that will only happen if you cannot face the future. They need you, and you know that" grandmother told him with the most gentle voice she could speak in. He looked back to the others and gave a worried loon.

"But what if..." Shiro started, but grandmother interrupted.

"They have faith in you, they trust you. A leader is nothing without faith in himself" Shiro had to admit that she was right, the moment he had been captured the first time had caused him to lose whatever faith in himself that he had. But now that he had a new team, and being given a new chance to make things right, not just for his last team, but for his new one, and the entire galaxy as well. He turned back to grandmother and spoke.

"You're right, if we're gonna free the galaxy and it's inhabitants from Zarkon and the Galra, they're going to need my guidance" Shiro admitted, making Grandmother smile in happiness.

"Good, now go" grandmother said, dismissing him to the others.

"Alright guys. I hope you guys remembered how to climb a rock wall or a jungle gym, because we're gonna climb our way up to the surface" Shiro said confidently. The others began to light up, they knew that Shiro was ready to become their leader. All the rangers, along with Shay and Rax began scaling the walls of the cavern from which they came up to the very top. The climb took about a grand total of ten minutes before they all stood up on the surface.

"We made it" Pidge said, wiping some sweat away from her forehead.

"Now what?" Lance asked. Shiro pointed over to one of the Galra fortresses and watchtowers to reveal several sentries and attack vehicles approach them.

"Now we gear up. Ready rangers?" Shiro asked, pulling out his power card.

"Ready!" the others responded in unison, pulling their cards out of their pockets and opening up their morphers. After all the cards were placed inside and the gauntlets shut themselves up, they were ready for battle.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they all chanted together before their ranger suits appeared on their bodies and their helmets covered their heads and faces. Rax and Shay's eyes were widened in awe at the sight of their ranger suits.

"Wow, so this is what a Power Ranger looks like?" Rax asked.

"It's not just that, it's what hope looks like" Keith said. Hunk started off their role call.

"With the strength of the Earth, Astro Force Yellow Ranger!" he said before he did a kick flip and took a fighting stance.

"With the freedom of the sky, Astro Force Black Ranger!" Shiro said before he took a fighting stance as well.

"With the grace of nature, Astro Force Green Ranger!" Pidge sounded off, taking her fighting stance and holding her hands up like a lion holds up it's paws to fight.

"With the purity of water, Astro Force Blue Ranger!" Lance said as he kicked the air three times and slammed his foot on the ground and raising up his fists.

"With the ferocity of fire, Astro Force Red Ranger!" Keith finally sounded off and raised one hand to a fist while the other remained where his power sword hilt remained.

"Power Rangers, Astro Force!" all of them shouted together in unison.

"They're getting closer, what's the plan Shiro?" Pidge asked.

"Those watchtowers are probably how they know when to send reinforcements if their number of soldiers grows thin. Lance, Pidge, you guys are with me, we're gonna slice our way through every once of those robots to try and take down the towers by using our blasters. Hunk and Keith, we'll need you to cover us and make sure the other sentries and those fighter ships don't give us any trouble" Shiro explained.

"Now that's acting and thinking like a leader. I'm proud of you, Shiro" Carter said through his helmet's communicator.

"Thanks, Carter" Shiro thanked before he, Lance, and Pidge took their hilts off their belts.

"Power Swords, engage!" the three of them commanded. Black, blue, and green blades emitted from the hilts and they began charging towards them. Keith and Hunk took off their hilts too, but flipped the little black switch.

"Element Blasters, engage!" they said, and their blasters appeared in their hands.

"What about us? What do we do?" Shay asked.

"Go back down and assemble your people to come to the surface. Tell them that the Power Rangers have come to save you, and that freedom is about to be granted to your people" Hunk told her.

"Alright, come on Rax" she said, and they left back to the bottom of the cavern. Both red and yellow rangers ran into the battle and began firing their blasters. Keith's fire streams did most of the damage to the sentries while Hunk's expanding mud balls were able to cause the fighter ships to crash to the ground by blocking the pilot sentry's windshields.

"And he slices, and he dices! And it is game over for the Galra! Score one for the blue ranger!" Lance cheered as he cut through multiple sentries as well as deflecting blaster bolts back at their chest and heads, killing them off. Pidge and Shiro did the same thing with their swords, but sometimes they switched between swords and blasters to take out their foes.

"We're here guys. Let's give 'em a storm" Shiro said as he aimed his blaster at the first tower and shot a wind sphere at it. The tornado that formed from it started getting stronger and stronger, causing it to tear the tower's supporting structure apart to tiny remains and it began to slowly fall.

"It worked!" Lance and Pidge cheered.

"Now start running unless you'd rather be as flat as a pancake!" Shiro ordered and all three rangers began running away from the falling tower. When the tower hit the ground, the entire surface began shaking and cracking like there was an earthquake.

"Woah! What was that!?" Keith asked, trying to regain his balance after the massive tremor stopped.

"That's because of the planet's condition. The more heavy hits the Balmera takes, the closer it gets to self destructing on itself" Carter answered through the communicator.

"Well, is there any other way we can destroy the towers without causing further harm to the planet?" Shiro asked as he now switched to his power sword and began cutting through multiple sentries.

"No, not that I can think of" Carter answered. Hunk then took notice of a large glowing blue area in front of him and he ran over to it.

"Um, Carter, are you seeing this?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, and from the looks of it, I think the planet's trying to talk to you. It's the Balmera's way of telling you how to heal it" he answered.

"Well then, how do we do it?" Pidge asked.

"Sorry Pidge, only the powers of the yellow ranger can do that" Carter answered.

"What? Me?" Hunk asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Your element is Earth, which means your power is not only controlling the environment around you to use to your advantage, but you can also heal dying planets" Carter explained.

"So I can actually make everything the way it used to be?" Hunk asked.

"Just place your hands down on that blue spot, call to your elemental powers and give as much as you can to restore the Balmera to it's former glory" Carter said. Hunk then took a deep breath and got down on his knees into the middle of the glowing blue spot of dirt before placing his hands down on it. After one more deep breath, he spoke.

"Power of Earth!" he called out. The yellow ranger's palms began glowing bright yellow and he could feel power surging through his hands and into the ground. Large blue crystals began growing all over the planet, it was flourishing with new life, being given to it by Hunk.

"Guys, it's working!" Shiro said, turning away from the fight and staring at what Hunk was doing to revive the planet.

"Not only that, look!" Lance said, pointing to all the watchtowers and bases. They were encased entirely with crystals, and every last sentry and vehicle inside them were destroyed by being encased inside the crystals. The sentries they all once fought went limp but still stood on their feet, the ships crashed as well.

"Wait, what are they doing?" Lance asked.

"The towers must have contained the sentries' control chips. Now that they're all crystallized, they don't work anymore, look" Pidge said before she pushed down a sentry.

"They're broken!" Keith happily said as he now watched all the other shut down enemy robots fall to the floor. Hunk then fell to his side and his suit disappeared, reverting back to his normal state, and his power card was still inside his gauntlet.

"Hunk!" the other four rangers cried out before running to him. Shiro took him into his arms and saw that his eyes were closed and he was groaning.

"Using up almost all of his power must have really tuckered him out" Pidge said, placing a hand on Hunk's forehead.

"Don't blame him. He just revived an entire planet" Shiro said. Hunk then opened up his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You just saved our butts is what you did. You not only revived a planet, but you also destroyed every Galra outpost and sentry!" Lance cheered.

"I did?" Hunk asked, still very tired and his eyes half-way closed.

"Yeah, and I don't think I've ever been more proud of you than I am right now buddy" Shiro said. Everyone then looked up to see the Balmerans walk up to them with happy faces and they were all cheering.

"You have revived our home and freed us from the Galra, how can we ever repay you?" Rax asked happily.

"Don't thank us, thank him" Keith said, pointing down to Hunk. Shay helped Hunk back up and hugged him.

"Thank you. You kept your promise to free us, and came all the way through" Shay said. Hunk tiredly blushed.

"Aw, no big deal" he replied.

"Well, I think it was" Shay said before kissing Hunk's cheek. This made his eyes widen and blush as well. Everyone's attention was now fixed on the sky as a meteor crashed right in front of him. Out of the smoke came out Drazil who had his eyes completely fixed on the rangers.

"Another one?" Pidge asked in disbelief.

"I'm afraid to" Shiro replied.

 **A/N: Shiro's now accepted his duties as being a leader, and Hunk has revived the Balmera using his elemental powers and destroying the Galra in the process. But now, they've gotta face Drazil, and it's gonna be much more difficult than their last enemy back on that prison ship. And Hunk got a kiss from Shay as a way of saying 'Thank You' for saving the planet (Lucky him, huh?) next update is the final part of 'Follow the Leader' and the fight with Drazil. Please review, thanks!**


	9. Follow the Leader III

**A/N: Here we are, the final part of 'Follow the Leader', the third chapter of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. Shiro has now finally taken up the role as leader of the Astro Force Rangers, and Hunk has unlocked his inner elemental powers of Earth by using them to revive the Balmera, and winning the affection of Shay. But in doing so, Hunk has grown very tired and has powered down, and at a bad time because Drazil had just arrived to the party and the rangers are only one teammate short if they are to defeat him. Let's dive right into the story and see how they handle it, shall we? Enjoy!**

Drazil approached the rangers with an angry and evil glare upon his face. He then extended his arms and let the glowing circles on them release several green lasers that headed right towards them.

"Everybody get down!" Shiro ordered. All the Balmerans and the other rangers ducked down and the lasers missed.

"This guy's tougher than he looks" Lance said as he stood back up.

"Yeah, nothing like the last one" Pidge added as Keith helped her up.

"Doesn't matter, we can still take it down" Hunk said while he tried to stand up, but ended up falling down.

"No, Hunk. Let us handle this guy, you're too tired to fight" Shiro said, advising Hunk to lie down.

"I will watch after him. You go take care of that monster" Shay told him. The black ranger nodded and stood back up along with the others. Everyone had now withdrew their power swords once again from their belts and took fighting stances once more.

"Astro Rangers, attack!" Shiro ordered as he ran ahead of the others and they followed him towards Drazil to destroy him. Drazil began firing more lasers at the rangers, but they either dodged them, or deflected them back at Drazil with the blades of their swords.

"Hey fish-face! Hope you like sushi, because you're about to get diced up and served!" Pidge said as she slid on the ground on her knees and tried slicing at Drazil's knees, but he saw it and swung his arm at her. Pidge was then knocked back and tumbled away from him.

"Keith, aim for the chest!" Shiro suggested. Keith nodded and switched from sword to blaster.

"Element blaster, engage!" Keith shouted as he now fired a powerful stream of blazing fire at his chest, but Drazil thought fast and began firing a bigger green laser blast at the stream and the two canceled each other out.

"What? How is that even possible!?" Keith asked, looking down at his blaster and back up at Drazil.

"Those lasers are stronger than they look" Shiro said. He tried attacking it with his sword, but Drazil fires his arm and chest lasers at Shiro. He tried deflecting the lasers all at once but it was all in vain, some of the beams combined to form a more powerful projectile, and it was too much for Shiro to take, and was knocked down to the ground along with Pidge.

"I hear fishes like you love to swim. Let's test that theory out!" Lance said as he whipped out his element blaster and began firing his water stream at Drazil. He fired more lasers at the stream of water and just like the fire, they canceled each other out, only the water and lasers created steam which caused Lance's visor on his helmet to fog up.

"What happened!? I can't see anything!" Lance said looking around in a panicking tone of voice. He wiped the mist off his visor and saw that Drazil now stood in front of him and smacked Lance a few feet away from him using his arm. Without a doubt, the rangers were overpowered by their enemy, and no matter how they changed their approach of attack, Drazil was clearly more powerful. Shay and the others were watching as the rangers were being beaten.

"He's too strong, I don't think they can take anymore" Rax said in concern. Hunk groaned and tried standing back up, but Shay made him lie back down.

"No, Hunk. Shiro said you need to rest" Shay told him.

"I have to help them" Hunk weakly replied.

"How can you fight if you've nearly drained yourself of all your own power?" Rax asked. Shay's eyes widened and an idea had popped up in her head.

"Everyone form a circle around Hunk" she told them. Rax, her grandmother, and a few other Balmerans did so and they placed their hands on the ground.

"Balmera, we ask that you give our friend some of your energy. He has tired himself out greatly trying to breathe life back into you, but now his friends are in trouble and we ask you help him" Shay spoke with her eyes closed and hands placed firmly on the ground. The ground around Hunk started glowing blue, and so did Hunk's body. Power began surging throughout the yellow ranger's body, and he didn't feel tired anymore, he felt like he was feeling like he was full of energy. He jumped up from where he lied down and stood up.

"Wow, that was something" Hunk said smiling and back to his old self.

"Hunk, how do you feel?" Shay asked.

"Like I just drank twenty cans of soda all at once. And definitely better than I was before" he answered before his eyes caught the sight of his fellow rangers being taken down in battle.

"Go, they need you" grandmother told him. Hunk nodded and saw that his card was still sealed inside his gauntlet.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" Hunk shouted, his yellow ranger suit and helmet back onto his body and took his element blaster off his belt. Once the blaster was charged up, he ran towards Drazil and fired a mud ball at his eyes, and he was blinded.

"Woah! What fired that?" Keith asked.

"Look! It's Hunk!" Pidge said, pointing over to where Hunk ran towards Drazil.

"I liked fish better when they swam in the water instead of walking on dry land!" Hunk said now punching Drazil's chest and giving him a knee kick to his jaw while he was still blinded by the mud that covered his eyes. Drazil, taken aback by the sudden impact to his jaw, fell backwards onto his back, not firing any lasers since he couldn't see where he would fire the lasers at.

"Way to go Hunk!" Lance cheered.

"Show that over sized piranha who's boss!" Pidge cheered along with Lance.

"Power of the Earth!" Hunk shouted before placing a hand on the ground. Drazil was now imprisoned inside a large vat of crystals, he struggled to move but couldn't.

"Good thinking, Hunk. Now let's combine our swords and take him down" Shiro said. Everyone then swapped to their swords and let the blades touch, letting them form their greatest weapon.

"Infinity sword! Power strike!" all rangers chanted together and Keith swiped the blade in the air. The energy from the sword went right through the crystals and Drazil, destroying him completely. All that remained was a small purple Galra crystal.

"Oh no, not this again!" Hunk squeaked in a slightly terrified manner. The crystal began growing and more crystals began forming around it as well. Once the crystal was completely grown and formed to be shaped like Drazil, the shell broke off to reveal Drazil had grown much bigger than before, just like the previous Robeast they had faced before.

"Aw great, he got bigger" Lance groaned in annoyance.

"You know what to do, guys!" Shiro told them.

"Spirit of the lions, ascend!" all the rangers chanted. Several elemental beams were being fired at Drazil from the sky and they hit hit back. He looked to the sky to see the lions shooting the beams out through the tips of their tails. The black lion charged at the leg which made it trip and fall backwards.

"Let's form Mega-Zord before it gets up!" Shiro said before he and the other rangers jumped up from where they previously stood and found their way inside their lions' control rooms.

"Form Mega-Zord!" they all chanted together. Red and green formed the arms, blue and yellow formed the legs, while black formed the body and the head. Now Drazil stood back up and got ready to attack once more, but this time at the Mega-Zord.

"Shiro, how do we take this one out? I can't trap it in crystals again with the Mega-Zord" Hunk asked.

"We'll think of something, but for now let's just keep it distracted!" Shiro ordered. Lance and Hunk nodded and engaged the booster rockets on the lions' feet, charging towards Drazil and punching it in the face, but it did little than make it wobble where it stood and fire a large chest laser at them, which knocked the Mega-Zord down for a brief second.

"Wow, that chest laser of his is really strong" Keith said as he and Pidge picked the Mega-Zord back up onto it's feet. Pidge then noticed her hilt was glowing green and so was the key-port in the side of the control panel.

"Guys, I think my lion is trying to tell me something. I think it wants me to apply my hilt to the Mega-Zord and it'll give us some kind of weapon to use against that thing" Pidge told them.

"You really think it'll work?" asked Lance.

"We don't have any other option right now. Go for it, Pidge" Shiro told her. Pidge nodded and stuck her hilt inside the port and twisted it. Right on top of the left arm formed a large green cannon which had an arch-like structure on top of it, kind of like a giant horse-shoe.

"Let's see what this thing can do" Pidge said before she shifted the gears forward and slammed her hand on one of the buttons on the panel in front of her.

"Jungle cannon, fire!" Pidge commanded before she slammed the button. A large green energy sphere formed inside the archway and it fired right at Drazil's chest. It hit the chest directly and large roots began growing out of his chest, as well as the circular holes in his arms.

"Good job, Pidge. Now that thing has nothing left to fire at us. Let's destroy it" Shiro said before Keith added his hilt to his own key-port which engaged the large sword they used to destroy the Gladiator.

"Power bade, engage!" the rangers shouted and began slicing at Drazil. They cut off his arms and then lunged the blade right through his chest. Drazil then exploded into pieces and was destroyed for good. The Balmerans cheered at their victory and were cheering for them.

"They did it!" Rax happily exclaimed.

"We are free!" grandmother cheered.

"Power Rangers! Power Rangers! Power Rangers!" they all chanted in unison.

"Do you hear that? They're happy" Hunk said.

"Yeah, it feels good knowing we saved them from enslavement" Shiro said.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

"Drazil has been destroyed!?" Zarkon shouted in an angry voice, slamming his hands on the armrests of his throne and denting the metal they were made with. Haggar, who was the one delivering the message was taken aback slightly by the outburst and flinched at her master's anger.

"My master, I promise we will get the power cards and destroy the Power Rangers if we just create the right..." she began but Zarkon cut her off.

"Do not give me excuses! If you want to save your neck, then you better destroy the rangers next time! And I'm not joking around with you, witch!" Zarkon barked at her. Haggar then just left the throne room without another word to her angry master.

"It seems I have underestimated you, Power Rangers. But I will not make that mistake again, when the time comes and you are graveling at my feet, it will be you who have underestimated me" Zarkon said hoarsely with a faint smile on his face as he sat back down on his throne.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Shiro was surrounded by the other rangers, being given compliments on how they knew he could be leader, and how it was good to have him leading them. Shiro was just modest and replied to each and every one of them with a small 'Thank you'.

"You did well out there, each and every one of you. I am surprised at how you discovered the Jungle Cannon when your lion spoke to you, Pidge" Carter told her.

"Thank you, Carter. That means a lot" Pidge said with a smile.

"Shiro, I'm also very proud of you too. It took a while for you to realize that you can only repeat the past if you didn't face your future. And I don't think your teammates could ask for a better leader right now" Carter said as he turned to Shiro and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, but this victory does not belong to me. It belongs to all of us, especially Hunk. He revived an entire planet and unlocked his elemental powers" Shiro told him.

"Yes. It seems Hunk and Keith have unlocked their powers first. Each and every one of you will unlock your powers at some point along your journey, and they will help you achieve great things the more you learn about and practice them" Allura added in.

"Trust me, all of you are doing just spectacular jobs. You may not be Paladins, but the Power Rangers have really become something to the galaxy, a sign of hope for all who wish to be free of Zarkon and the Galra" Coran said with enthusiasm and happiness. Carter began looking all around to see one ranger was missing.

"Um, has anyone seen Hunk?" he asked.

"He's still on the Balmera. He said he had one last thing to take care of and that he'd phone me when he was done" Pidge answered for him.

"Wonder what he's doing there anyways" Lance thought to himself.

 **-Back on the Balmera-**

Shay and Hunk were now sitting on top of a rocky hill late at night time. The crystals were glowing bright blue in the darkness and giving off such a beautiful spectacle to the two of them who looked up at the sky above them. Hunk was out of his ranger suit and sharing a warm blanket with Shay as they sat on the edge of the cliff.

"Hunk, what are we doing here exactly?" Shay asked.

"Before the other rangers left, you told me how you had never seen a sunrise before in your life. Now, I'm gonna give you your first one" Hunk said looking out to the horizon and pointing out to show that the sun was now rising out to them. The crystals slightly reflecting the sun's rays of their edges and making it more beautiful than a normal sunrise would be.

"Oh Hunk, it's beautiful" Shay said with tears of happiness dripping from the corners of her eyes.

"I told you it would be" he said before pulling Shay in for a long and passionate kiss. Hunk felt happy, and that this was his reward for serving the galaxy as a member of the Power Rangers: Astro Force.

 **A/N: And there we have it. The end of 'Follow the Leader'. And I gave everyone some Hunk/Shay for all of you shippers reading this story, hope that was okay. We also got a new weapon unlocked for the Mega-Zord, the Jungle Cannon, and boy was it super helpful against Drazil. Keith and Hunk are also the first two rangers to unlock their elemental powers (Keith did back when they were fighting the Robeast in 'Gladiator's Revenge') while the others still have yet to discover and hone theirs. More to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	10. Howl of the Wolf I

**A/N: Hey all my loyal readers, it's my pleasure to present you an all new chapter of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. We've seen Shiro become a leader, and Hunk unlocking his elemental power of the Earth by using it to revive an entire planet, and the Jungle Cannon had been unlocked for the Mega-Zord. Now, what adventure awaits the rangers? Let's find out! Enjoy!**

Pidge woke up early to go on a run outside the base. She was the first one awake, all the others (as far as she could tell) were still asleep in their beds. Pidge didn't really mind running all by herself, it gave her some time to feel the cool night air touching her skin, and a chance to see the beautiful star-studded sky. All she wore was a t-shirt which had the original poster for 'The Empire Strikes Back' on it, a pair of black sweat pants with white stripes running down the legs, and a pair of gray Adidas Prime Boost running sneakers with light green stripes on the sides, and light green soles on the bottom. Her run took her about five miles away from the command center and she took a break at a small ravine, sitting on the edge.

"Wow, I never knew how beautiful it was out here" Pidge told herself as she looked up at the sky, fascinated with how the stars glimmered in the sky. She then pulled out a photo that was folded in half out of her pocket and opened it up to reveal a photo of her and her brother, Matt together the day before he and her father left for the Kerberos mission. She had so many fond memories of her with him together.

"Don't worry Matt, I'm gonna find you soon" Pidge said to the photo. Her thoughts were then interrupted by a howl echoing throughout the canyons, and she looked behind her to hear more howling and painful whimpers. She placed her picture back in her pocket and began running towards the source of the howling. Just over the cliff, she saw as a gray wolf was in pain, it's hind leg caught by a bear trap, and surrounding it were two hunters.

"Well well well, look what we've got here. A gray wolf, and in the middle of the desert too" one of the hunters said. The second one took out a hunting knife made of stainless steel and began approaching it. Pidge felt anger surging throughout her heart the more she heard the wolf's whining and begging for mercy. With an angry look on her face, she jumped out from her hiding place and landed right in front of the wolf and blocking the hunters.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Pidge asked taking a fighting stance.

"Step out of the way, kid. That wolf's pelt is worth a fortune to the right buyer" the hunter with the knife said twirled it like a greaser from the movies would do.

"And if you think you're gonna stop us from making hundreds of thousands of dollars off this one wolf, you've got another thing coming" the first hunter said as he pulled out a hunting revolver and pointed it at her head. Pidge then jumped up and knocked the gun right out of his hand and began repeatedly punching the hunter right in his face.

"You just made a big mistake, you little brat!" the second hunter said as he charged towards Pidge, but she grabbed the hand which held the knife and twisted it, inflicting pain on him and forcing him to drop the knife into the dirt. Pidge then gave the hunter several elbow jabs to the rib cage, and then a knee kick to the chin. The first hunter still didn't give up, and tried attacking Pidge again, but she gave a swift kick to his legs and made him trip and hit his face on a rock, giving him a bloody nose.

"What are you gonna do now, huh? You gonna leave this poor creature alone!?" Pidge asked, still maintaining a fighting stance but still standing in front of the injured wolf. The badly beaten hunters nodded rapidly in response, and in shock that they were beaten so easily despite the fact that they had weapons.

"Good! Now leave! And don't come back here!" Pidge commanded, and the hunters ran off afraid. Once gone, Pidge looked down at her hands.

"Huh, and I didn't even need my gauntlet or my power card" she said, proud of herself, but the wolf's pain educed whining caught her attention. The green ranger then got on one knee and picked up the hunter's fallen knife, sticking it in between the trap's sharp jaws.

"Easy now, it's gonna be okay" Pidge said in a gentle and loving tone, trying to calm the wolf down. She felt terrible for the wolf, it had tears in it's eyes too. With all the strength she could muster, she used the knife to free the wolf's leg and threw the trap away.

"There, I told you it was gonna be okay. Now let's clean that wound up" she said before picking it up into her arms like a dog and carried it back to the same ravine she took a rest. Pidge then took a handful of water from the stream and poured it onto the slightly bleeding wound, which made the wolf whine a couple times out of pain, but Pidge rubbed it's back to keep it calm.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, we're gonna get you all fixed up" Pidge said in a comforting voice. The water certainly cleaned up the wound, but she still needed some disinfectant and bandages to properly patch it up.

"Come with me, and we'll get that wound taken care of in no time" Pidge said, still carrying the wolf in her arms back towards the command center.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Zarkon was sitting in the center of a room on board the ship surrounded by four beings wearing black cloaks and masks with four yellow glowing eyes and no mouths. All four of them were channeling purple lightning into Zarkon's body, while the emperor himself was down on one knee in the middle of a floating platform.

"More, I need more!" shouted Zarkon. They did as their emperor ordered and channeled more dark magic into his body.

"Sire" a voice interrupted, it was Haggar. The cloaked individuals stopped channeling magic and left the room so that Zarkon and Haggar had time to talk alone.

"Why do you interrupt me now? You know that if I am to destroy the Power Rangers, I'm going to need all the quintessence I need" Zarkon reprimanded.

"You know that the more quintessence from a planet you draw into your own body, the less you'll actually have, right?" Haggar asked.

"Save me a lecture, witch! Now what is it you have interrupted me for?" Zarkon asked harshly.

"We have received word from one of our enforcers on the planet Taujeer, that the planet it shedding it's crust and will soon be nothing but an all acid planet. The citizens are building an ark to escape the planet in the hopes they survive and find a new home" Haggar explained.

"Do not allow them to leave. It is the natural order of things for a planet to die with it's inhabitants" Zarkon simply ordered.

"I will send the word out immediately to all nearby fleets" Haggar told and was prepared to walk away but Zarkon spoke up and stopped her.

"And tell them, if the Power Rangers try and intervene, show no mercy!" Zarkon commanded. Haggar nodded and then left the room, and Zarkon was alone once more.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Pidge had taken the wolf back to the command center's med-bay and had properly cleaned the wound up with some disinfectant, and stitched it all up before wrapping bandages all around it, making sure they were securely wrapped around the leg and placed a clip onto it to have it stay there.

"There we go, all done. That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Pidge asked the wolf, whom licked her cheek in appreciation. She chuckled at the sudden showing of affection to her newly gained animal friend. While healing it, Pidge had come to find out that the wolf was male.

"Hey, easy boy" Pidge said in between giggles. Pidge knew that wolves could be savage killers when they wanted to be, but ever since she saved him, he had never shown any signs that he wanted to attack her.

"Now what am I gonna name you?" Pidge wondered to herself while looking deep into the wolf's eyes. While still thinking of a name, she looked at the wall to see a picture of the Mars Rover. Just from looking at that picture, Pidge had the perfect name figured out.

"I'm gonna call you Rover" she said before nuzzling his forehead. The door opened up and Lance entered the room.

"Hey Pidge, Carter told me to come and tell you that breakfast is ready and... HOLY QUIZNACK!" Lance exclaimed, falling backwards onto the med-bay's polished linolium floor.

"Why do you have a wolf in here!?" Lance asked terrified and pointing at Rover.

"Calm down, Lance. He's not gonna hurt you" Pidge said while she held Rover close to her and nuzzled the side of his muzzle.

"How do you know? He might eat you in your sleep one night!" Lance shouted when he got up.

"Oh, be quiet Lance. Rover wouldn't hurt me, I saved him, he's completely loyal to me" Pidge said in defense of Rover.

"You're not supposed to name it! Because once you name it, you start getting attached to it! Now put that thing back where you found it or so help me..." Lance said before noticing that Keith, Shiro, Hunk, Carter, Coran, and Allura standing behind them.

"Um, how long have you been standing there?" Lance asked awkwardly.

"Long enough to hear the whole conversation" Shiro told him. Shiro then stepped in front of him to talk to Pidge.

"Pidge, what were you thinking bringing a wild animal into our command center?" Shiro asked.

"There were hunters going to skin it, he was hurt, I couldn't just let it suffer" she said.

"This has got to be the stupidest decision you've ever made in your life" Keith piped in.

"Actually, it was a very smart decision" Allura said. All the other rangers, excluding Carter shouted 'What!?' before she walked up to Rover and placed a hand on his back before she rubbed it gently. Rover started panting happily with his tongue hanging out of his mouth much like a domesticated house-dog would whenever their owner showed them affection.

"Pidge's element is nature, and the green paladin always shows compassion to all of nature's creatures, predator, prey, and even plants alike. The green ranger certainly was no exception, by rescuing this wolf she has proved that she is true to the power of nature" said Allura.

"So I can keep him!?" Pidge asked excitedly. Allura turned to Carter and the others and nodded, encouraging them to say 'Yes' to keeping Rover with her as a pet.

"Yes, you may" Carter answered, which sent Pidge into a happy dance.

"But make sure you put a collar on him. I don't want anyone else thinking he's a stray animal roaming around the desert without an owner" Carter added. Pidge then saluted Carter.

"Yes sir, and I promise to take good care of him. Scout's honor!" she replied. Lance groaned in annoyance.

"Great, now we have a savage killing machine as a house pet" he said with a face-palm to his forehead. Rover snarled and growled at Lance as if he were to say 'I beg your pardon, I heard that'.

"And I think it should be a rule that we don't get on the wolf's bad side" Shiro suggested.

"Agreed" everyone replied in unison.

"His name's not 'Wolf', it's 'Rover'. And we need to treat him like he's family, not a wild animal" Pidge said, placing a small kiss on Rover's nose, which earned her a lick on the cheek from him.

 **A/N: There you have it, part one of 'Howl of the Wolf'. In this AU, Rover is not a reprogrammed Galra drone, he's a wolf that's imprinted on Pidge since she saved him from hunters. While the rangers were busy making new animal friends, Zarkon's planing to wipe out an entire species by making them die on their own planet. How will the rangers deal with living with a wolf? And will they be able to save the Taujeer? Find out in the second part! Please review, thanks!**


	11. Howl of the Wolf II

**A/N: In the last update, Pidge made a new friend, a gray furred wolf she saved from some hunters who wanted to skin it and sell it's pelt, and took it back to the command center where she named him 'Rover', and patched up the wound on his leg given to him by a trap. Meanwhile, Zarkon plans on keeping the inhabitants of another dying planet trapped on there and forbidding them to leave, to have them die when the planet dies. Let's move onto part two of the 'Howl of the Wolf' chapter, shall we? Enjoy!**

Inside the bathroom, Pidge had just finished giving Rover a bath, making sure every last hint of dirt from the desert was scrubbed completely out of his fur. After a fresh change of bandages, and having his fur brushed by using one of her old hairbrushes, Pidge was now proud to say that her new companion was squeaky clean.

"Alright Rover, I'd say you're clean enough" Pidge said before placing the brush back inside the drawer and reached a hand into her pocket.

"I got a present for you to. It's my way of saying 'Welcome to our family', and I hope you'll like it" Pidge said to the wolf, who sat down like a dog would. Out of her pocket, she pulled out a black leather collar with a gold buckle and a small tag on it with Rover's name on it. At the sight of the collar, Rover began running around in circles in excitement.

"You like it? Shiro bought it for you today at the pet shop in town. He thought it fit you perfectly" she told him before she gently run a hand down his back and placed the collar around his neck.

"Aw, don't you look so cute?" Pidge asked before she kissed Rover on his forehead, Rover returned the kiss with a friendly lick on her nose.

"Glad you like it, little buddy" she said. The door behind her opened to reveal Keith.

"Oh, hey Keith. Check out Rover's new collar. You like it?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah. Listen, Carter wants to see us at the master computer room" Keith responded. All she did was get up from the floor and followed him, and so did Rover. Ever since Carter said that Pidge could keep him, Rover never left her side, he followed her almost everywhere she went. Once at the master computer room, Carter began briefing the other rangers.

"We've picked up major Galra activity a few miles away from the planet Taujeer. There's warships getting ready to surround almost the entire perimeter of the planet itself" Carter said pointing out on the computer the planet being slowly approached by massive counts of Galra ships. There were so many of them it was hard to tell how many there were.

"And there's even more bad news. The planet is starting to shed it's surface, which means it'll be an all acid planet once it sheds. The inhabitants of the planet have built their own ship to try and escape, but the Galra have set this blockade up to prevent it" Allura added.

"Why would they want to do that?" asked Shiro.

"We don't know. But any reason Zarkon has to keep a peaceful race from leaving it's dying planet is never a good one" Coran told them.

"You guys need to take down all those Galra and help the Ark escape the planet before it's too late" Carter ordered before he opened up the wormhole.

"Let's move, rangers!" Shiro commanded, everyone followed but Pidge stopped when she saw that Rover was following them too. She got down on one knee and ruffled the fur on the sides of his face.

"Sorry buddy, but you can't come with us. Rangers only" Pidge said in an apologetic tone.

"Pidge, come on. We have to go" Lance told her. She then stood back up and looked to Allura.

"Do me a favor and watch him until we get back?" Pidge asked.

"Of course. Rover will be in good hands, don't you worry about a thing, Pidge" Allura kindly assured her. Pidge nodded and ran towards the wormhole along with the others. When the wormhole was shut, Rover began whining at Pidge's absence in the room.

"Don't worry, she's coming back soon. You'll see" Allura said as she gently rubbed Rover's back.

 **-On Taujeer-**

On the crumbling surface of Taujeer, one of the planet's residents was begging with the Galra general named Morvok to allow his people to leave. Morvok was a strong enforcer of Zarkon's will throughout the galaxy, and he believed his word was law. Taujeer's inhabitants were slightly overweight with only one mechanical eye/vocal box.

"Please, the surface has almost completely shed. We need to leave" the resident said.

"You should have no problem staying. The strongest of your species should mostly survive" Morvok pointed out cruelly.

"But we're all that's left. All of who sit on that ark are families, there are even infants and young children. Surely Zarkon could call off the blockade and allow us safe passage to a nearby moon to establish a new colony?" he begged more.

"Zarkon's given me my orders, and what he says goes, got it?" Morvok snapped, having no patience whatsoever. The sentries that stood by Morvok's sides were shot in the chests with fire blasts and it caused them to explode. Morvok, in complete shock of what was happening turned to one of the hills behind him to see the Power Rangers, all suited up and aiming their element blasters at him.

"Back down, Galra! These people are leaving this planet!" Shiro ordered before jumping off the hill and kicking Morvok in the chest, sending him flying three feet away from the edge of the cracking crust which was mostly surrounded by boiling hot and steaming acid.

"Wait a minute! You're those 'Power Rangers' that Zarkon's always talking about!" Morvok shouted as he got up.

"Glad to know you've heard of us" Lance said as he and the other rangers stood by Shiro's side and aimed their blasters at him.

"I'm not afraid of you! Just until the rest of the fleet gets here! Then you're gonna be in real big trouble!" Morvok said before he hopped back onto the platform he stood on before and pressed a button which sent him flying back up towards the sky. The rangers then powered down and removed the cards from their morphers and back into their pockets. The same Taujeerian resident that was speaking to Morvok before walked up to Shiro and shook his hand.

"It is an honor to meet you at last. Many planetary systems across the galaxy, especially one of the Balmera have spoken highly of the Power Rangers" he told him.

"Well, we're here to help. How's the Ark?" asked Shiro. The Taujeerian looked back up to it and spoke again.

"Those sentries have mostly sabotaged the navigation system, as well as the ignition systems. One of them even shot one of the landing gear's legs off, causing it to almost tilt towards the acid" he explained. Pidge then walked up towards the Taujeerian.

"I can help in repairing the ignition and navigation systems" Pidge told him.

"I'll work on mounting the leg back onto the ship's side. Right now, we need you inside with the rest of your people" Keith said.

"Very well. But I kindly advise you to hurry, we don't have that much time left before the crust is completely shed" the Taujeerian said before running back on board the ship with Pidge following him. Keith then ran up towards the leg and called upon Hunk to help him lift it back up. Once red and yellow rangers got a hold of the heavy leg, they were able to lift it together and get it close to where it was placed before.

"Good job. Now go see if Pidge needs any help" Keith told him. Hunk nodded and went on board the ship. Keith then took off his gloves and started to concentrate his powers.

"Power of fire!" Keith said before he shot a stream of fire out of his palms and used it as a makeshift welding torch to seal the leg back onto the side of the ship. By the time Keith was done sealing the leg back to the ark, he noticed Hunk and Pidge were back outside.

"Alright, we were able to fix the ignition and navigation. What about the leg?" Pidge asked Keith.

"Completely sealed back up" Keith happily reported.

"Good work, now all we gotta do is worry about that incoming blockade" Shiro added in.

"How are we gonna do that? They're probably gonna be firing at us with every single gun their ships have" Lance asked.

"We'll use the Mega-Zord. We may not be able to take on large ships by ourselves, but we can with the Mega-Zord, not to mention it can withstand any kind of attack the Galra can dish out" Shiro answered. Everyone then nodded to themselves and placed their power cards into their gauntlets.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they chanted and their suits and helmets were back on their bodies. Once all morphed they began to chant a command again.

"Spirit of the lions, ascend!" and the lions flew down from the sky and landed gently on the ground so that they would not disturb the surface. The rangers then found their way to the control panels of their respective lions.

"Form Mega-Zord!" all the rangers chanted and within minutes, the black lion formed the body, red and green formed the arms, and blue and yellow formed the legs. Once Mega-Zord had properly been formed, they stood waiting for any sign of the blockade to start showing up. Suddenly, from behind the clouds, several Galra warships appeared, and started firing at the ark and the Mega-Zord.

"They're not too happy. Let's make sure they stay that way" Shiro said.

"Agreed" Keith said, sticking his hilt into the control panel's key-port and the power blade appeared inside the arm Keith operated. Using it, they started deflecting cannon blasts and sending them back towards the ships, which caused great damage, but the more focused they were on one attack, one of the other ships attacked the Mega-Zord from a different angle, and caused damage to it's body.

"Guys, we're taking heavy fire!" said Lance.

"There's too many of them, we can't take all of them at once" Shiro said.

"We've never faced so many at once before" Pidge added.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Carter, Coran, and Allura watched in horror as the Mega-Zord took multiple hits to it's body, and how some of the attacks hit the surface as well, speeding up the planet's outer shell's shedding. Allura could feel her heart racing at the sight of this, and so did Carter.

"How can this be? Normally the Mega-Zord would be enough to take a Galra enforcer down" Coran commented.

"When it came to those monsters they faced before, yes. But these are powerful warships with heavy duty weapons. They've never faced anything like this before" Carter replied. Rover, who was watching the whole thing started growling at the screen and then ran up to the computer's keyboard, pressing the button which activated the wormhole.

"What the!?" Carter yelled in disbelief. Rover's eyes started glowing purple, which Carter noticed, and then began running towards the wormhole which had just been opened.

"Rover, stop!" Allura called out, but it was too late. Rover had just gone through the wormhole and it shut when he entered.

"What was that about?" Coran asked. Carter then began pulling out the same book he was reading before and began skipping through the pages, didn't even bother looking through the table of contents. All Carter did was speed read through all the pages until he could find the right one.

 **-Back on Taujeer-**

Shiro, who was doing his best to try and keep the Mega-Zord standing, noticed something on his computer. It was a little blipping red light, as well as an alarm sound.

"Guys, another wormhole is opening" Shiro told everyone. All eyes were on the wormhole which opened close by the ark to reveal it was Rover. Pidge gasped and her eyes widened in worry.

"Carter, why's Rover here!?" Pidge asked, she felt like her heart could burst right out of her chest given how fast it was beating right now.

"He just pressed the button and ran through. I don't know why he did it" Carter answered through the headsets.

"Well whatever he's doing here, he doesn't seem to look too happy" Hunk commented, pointing at the fact that a silver aura now surrounded Rover. His eyes began glowing purple and he began growing in size.

"You guys are seeing this too, right?" Keith asked, the others responded with a 'Uh-Huh'. They all watched as Rover grew and began acting completely savage, there was now a silver glow surrounding Rover, and once it disappeared, he looked totally different. He was now covered in sleek silver metal, with glowing purple eyes, and some parts of his body was dark blue, like the middles of his forehead and muzzles, as well as his legs, and his tail.

"Woah, that's something I never expected to see" Lance said once he saw Rover, now turned into a giant robotic wolf and it howled to the sky, which emitted several sonic waves and caused three Galra ships to shut down and fall down into the acid. The wolf then looked to where Pidge was and opened it's mouth to allow a silver glowing projectile fly out and into her hand after it merged through the command center's visor. In her hand now was a silver card which looked like her power card, except it was silver and on the front was a golden wolf head.

"It's a power card. I think Rover's really a Zord" Pidge said while staring down at the silver power card.

"Fenrir" Carter said, catching everyone else's attention.

"Excuse me?" Shiro asked.

"It's name is Fenrir. It's one of the Legend-Zords, zords powered by the spirits of ancient warriors" Carter explained.

"I remember now. Fenrir, the great wolf spirit" Pidge piped in.

"Exactly. When you saved it from those hunters in the desert, Pidge, it imprinted on you. All that affection he gave you, was it's way of letting you know that he chose you to be the keeper of his card" Carter explained to her. Pidge couldn't feel more honored right now to hear that the Fenrir Zord had chosen her to be his keeper. She then looked back up to see her new zord had been hopping from ship to ship, tearing apart the command towers using it's powerful and sharp claws.

"It's taking down more of the Galra ships that were attacking us before!" Keith said happily.

"Now that is one big bad wolf" Lance added.

"Way to go, Fenrir Zord!" Pidge happily exclaimed as another Galra ship fell victim to his power.

"Glad to know he's on our side! Now let's take out the rest of this blockade!" Shiro ordered. Now the battle was truly about to begin for the rangers.

 **A/N: There you have it! Rover is really a powerful zord, the spirit of the mighty wolf, Fenrir. But now the real challenge begins, can they save the citizens of Taujeer before it's destruction is complete? Or will it be too late and will it all be for nothing? Find out in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	12. Howl of the Wolf III

**A/N: Here we are, the final part of 'Howl of the Wolf'. The Taujeer have been blocked from leaving their planet by the Galra and their general Morvok, but the Power Rangers have now come to their rescue. Just when the Mega-Zord was coming under heavy fire by the Galra blockade, Rover came in through the wormhole and revealed himself to the the powerful Fenrir-Zord, the embodiment of the legendary wolf spirit, Fenrir, and it imprinted on Pidge when she saved it in the desert, and has chosen her to be the keeper of his power card. Now let's see what else the Fenrir-Zord can do, shall we? Enjoy!**

Everyone watched as the Fenrir-Zord jumped high up into the air, doing a somersault in the air, and his tail glowing bright silver. Once he got close to a ship, he slammed his tail right in the center of the ship, slicing it in half like it was nothing at all. Pidge then noticed something, the power card that the Fenrir-Zord had given her was glowing bright silver as well and on top of the control panel, where there was a tiny little thin slot which glowed the same color at the card.

"Uh, guys. I think he's trying to tell me something" Pidge told the others.

"Does it have anything to do with that power card it just gave you?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, and there's another glowing part of my control keys. I think it wants me to apply it to the Mega-Zord" she answered.

"What do you guys think?" Shiro asked.

"I say we go for it" Keith responded.

"Couldn't agree more with ya" Hunk added.

"Do it" Lance agreed.

"Alright, let's see that this bad boy can do" Pidge said before inserting the Fenrir card into the glowing slot.

"Wolf Cannon, engage!" a voice inside the Mega-Zord said. The Fenrir-Zord looked to the Mega-Zord and gave a lone nod before doing a front flip in the air and changing it's shape. His neck extended three feet and mouth opened to reveal a cylinder shaped cannon inside it's mouth with eight barrels, his legs folded themselves up and locked themselves up into his sides, out of his midsection came a handle similar to that of a regular gun, and the tail stood still above the rest. The cannon then landed in the Mega-Zord's hands and everyone was in awe once more at the Fenrir-Zord's abilities.

"So what can this thing do?" Lance asked.

"I dunno. But I bet it's gonna be cool" Pidge said.

"Let's fire it and see what happens" said Shiro. Keith and Pidge lifted the arms up to aim the Wolf Cannon at the nearest Galra warships that were closest to the atmosphere.

"Seismic shells, fire!" Pidge said before pressing a button on the control panel and out of the cannon came eight glowing blue bullets. Once the bullets hit the ship, they didn't explode, but instead emitted several glowing blue seismic energy waves that not only destroyed the ships that were all around it, bits and pieces of the ships fell down into the acid lakes that surrounded the surface.

"Okay, that was pretty cool" Hunk admitted to himself aloud for the other rangers to hear it.

"Keep going Pidge, we're almost done here and then we can get the Ark out of here" Shiro ordered.

"You got it, boss. Seismic shells, fire!" Pidge said before pressing the button again, firing eight more seismic shells at the Galra ships right behind them. Just like before, the other ships around them were destroyed with the glowing blue seismic waves emitted by the shells.

"All that's left is the command ship!" Keith pointed out to the larger ship where Morvok was sitting.

"I got it guys" Pidge said before she moved one of the gears on the control panel and took the Wolf Cannon's tail of the back and it began glowing and bent to a curved shape.

"Wolf-a-rang, launch!" Pidge ordered before the Mega-Zord tossed the Wolf-a-rang at the command ship. It went right through the middle of the entire ship before it came back to the Mega-Zord, which caught it and reattached it to the Wolf Cannon's backside. Before the ship exploded, an escape pod which without a doubt to the Rangers contained Morvok, abandoned the ship before making a jump into hyperspace.

"We did it! They're all gone!" Lance cheered.

"Way to go, Fenrir-Zord!" Pidge complimented before detaching the card from the control panel and the Wolf cannon reverted back to the Fenrir-Zord.

"Now let's get this Ark up in the air. We don't have that much time before the planet's shell's been shed completely" Shiro ordered. Pidge and Keith began shifting their joysticks to lift the front side of the ship. The entire thing was very heavy to lift, even the Mega-Zord couldn't take this much weight. Soon, they felt that someone else was helping lift the Ark, and noticed that the Fenrir-Zord was using it's back to help lift it up.

"The Fenrir-Zord is helping us!" Hunk pointed out.

"Huh, never thought that one day I'd find myself saved my a wolf" Lance said. Out of the legs of the Fenrir-Zord came two sets of booster rockets that began igniting with flames that helped lift itself and the Ark off the ground.

"I think it wants us to follow it's lead" Pidge said as she observed what the Fenrir-Zord was doing.

"Lance, Hunk, you know what to do" Shiro said.

"Engage booster rockets!" Hunk and Lance chanted together before the legs' rockets began to ignite and the Ark was now lifted by both Fenrir-Zord and Mega-Zord into the sky. Just as they got a few feet off the ground, the surface was showing cracks which emitted acid from it and now the whole planet was covered in acid.

"We did it!" Keith cheered.

"Now let's get this Ark someplace safe. There's a moon somewhere close that I think would be perfect to establish a colony" Shiro told them. With enough strength, effort, and teamwork, the Rangers got the Ark to that moon and placed it down gently on the surface. The Mega-Zord disappeared once the Ark was completely safe on the ground, but the Fenrir-Zord had reverted back to Rover, completely covered in fur, and ran up to Pidge.

"Good boy, Rover. Good boy" Pidge said as she patted Rover's head with love and affection, as her way of saying 'Thank you' to him for aiding them when they came under heavy fire and helping them win the battle.

"Power down!" all the rangers said together, reverting back to their regular clothes and their ranger suits and helmets disappearing. After they put their power cards back in their vest pockets and sealed their gauntlets back up, the Taujeerians ran out of the ark cheering for the Power Rangers. They all surrounded them and said their 'Thank You's for helping them escape their dying world. Shiro then found himself approached by the same Taujeerian he had spoken to when they first arrived back on the planet's surface.

"I cannot thank you enough, my people cannot thank you enough. The Taujeerian race is forever in the debt of the Power Rangers" he said.

"We're flattered, but it's not just us, we had a little help" Shiro said in a modest tone, with a small smile on his face, looking down to Rover. He placed his mechanical prosthetic arm on Rover's head and patted him gently, which Rover panted happily at.

"If it weren't for this little guy, nobody would be alive right now. Rover's a part of our team too, and he deserves just as much praise" Shiro said aloud.

"Of course, thank you Rover" the Taujeerian said. Rover then returned to Pidge's side and she spoke into her gauntlet communicator.

"Take us home, Carter" Pidge said. The wormhole opened behind them, and the rangers bid the Taujeerians farewell before they walked through and returned back home to Earth.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Morvok was kneeling in shame before Zarkon, who was screaming angrily at the general, Haggar standing right next to him.

"Never have I ever seen such a disgraceful practice of authority by one of our highest ranking generals, and such a disgraceful waste of several of our best warships our empire has to offer!" Zarkon scolded with such venom in his voice. Morvok was shaking as he knelt and did his best to endure Zarkon's wrath, but felt if he heard one more anger-filled word come out of his emperor's mouth, he felt like he was going to start crying.

"It wasn't my fault! The rangers were completely at my mercy before, but then some creature shows up and reveals itself to be the embodiment of the legendary wolf spirit, Fenrir" Morvok tried to explain. Zarkon just grabbed Morvok by his collar and held him up to his face up close.

"You let the Power Rangers destroy half our greatest warships! Word of this could spread throughout the galaxy and many planets will start to join the rangers in rebelling against me! And it is all your fault!" Zarkon said as he punched Morvok in the face, and sending him flying a few feet away from the throne. Morvok now let tears of shame and embarrassment fall from his eyes, as he wiped the bloody nose that Zarkon had given him with his punch. Haggar then approached Morvok and got down on her knees before him.

"However, despite your failure to destroy the Rangers, and abandoning your fleet, you have brought us some valuable information" Haggar told him.

"I did?" Morvok asked.

"Yes, now we know that they possess the Fenrir-Zord and that increases their power tenfold" she replied. Morvok gave a weak smile, hoping he would be rewarded for his information despite his failure.

"But, I cannot forgive you abandoning your fleet and costing several of our ships to them. So you must be punished" Haggar said before walking away. Two Galra guards came up to Morvok and began tying him up with glowing pink plasma ropes, cuffing his hands in front of him, and securing a muzzle onto his face a that looked similar to Scorpion from Mortal Kombat's face mask, and locking it tightly.

"Lock him in the dungeon and don't even bother untying him or to take that muzzle off!" Zarkon ordered. The guards nodded and began dragging him off to the dungeon which resided in the deepest depths of the ship.

"Mmmppph! Mmmmppphhh!" Morvok begged, but his words were muffled because of the muzzle, and was taken away.

"The rangers have grown more powerful, sire. Now that they have one of the Legend-Zords on their side, they have become more powerful" Haggar told her master.

"Yes, it seems they have. But this does not change a thing, they will go down one way or another. Prepare another Robeast to be deployed at the night sight of the rangers" Zarkon ordered. Haggar just bowed and left the throne room to do her emperor's bidding.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Inside the command center, Lance was still in awe at how with the Fenrir-Zord's help they were able to achieve victory against the Galra and help get the Ark of the Taujeer to a nearby moon to create a new home.

"That Fenrir-Zord was amazing. Why didn't you tell us that there were other zords out there?" Lance asked Carter.

"Well, Allura said that there were many great and powerful creatures that existed throughout the universe. But only the lions were chosen to be the protectors of the universe. Fenrir is not the only one, there are many other Legend-Zords out there, and I bet you fifty bucks that the Galra would absolutely love to get their hands on one" Carter explained while he held up the book he was reading before and opened it to reveal the illustration of Fenrir right next to a series of words which explained it's origins and powers.

"So you're saying that these Legend-Zords are in danger of being turned into weapons by the Galra as well?" Shiro asked.

"Exactly. But as long as we're always true to our powers, and to our cause to protect others, we will make sure that Zarkon doesn't place a single finger on their cards" Allura said, stepping into the discussion. Keith was now looking around but neither Pidge or Rover was around.

"Where's Pidge? I swear she was with us around dinner time" Keith asked.

"She said she wanted to just spend some time alone with Rover in the living area" Coran answered.

Inside the living room, Rover and Pidge were asleep in the living room, the table was littered with popcorn, sodas, and various assorted fruit flavored candies. Pidge was out of her regular outfit and now wearing a pale gray t-shirt with a Fennec fox with a sassy attitude on it's face, and underneath it were the words 'I hear what you're saying, I just don't care' on the front, and a pair of gray pajama pants with various video game console controllers on them, and a pair of green fuzzy socks. Rover was asleep with his head resting in her lap, not paying attention to the cartoons that were playing on the TV that they were watching earlier. As Pidge slept, she felt happy knowing that Rover was on the team and that the Fenrir-Zord was always gonna be there to help whenever they needed him.

 **A/N: And that concludes 'Howl of the Wolf'. Now we know of the Fenrir-Zord's incredible powers, and that there are other Legend-Zords out there too, perhaps they'll run into one or two more along their journey to defeat Zarkon for good. Bad news is that Haggar is building another Robeast to fight the rangers, and she plans on making it even more powerful than the Gladiator and Drazil. More to come in the next update, please review, thanks!**


	13. Roar of the Lion I

**A/N: Hello everybody! In the last update, Pidge rescued a wolf from some hunters and it became her loyal pet. When the rangers left to help a captive planet's population evacuate their dying world, Rover came to their rescue and revealed itself to be one of the powerful Legend-Zords, the spirit of the wolf spirit, Fenrir. With the Fenrir-Zord's help, they destroyed an entire squadron of Galra battleships and save the Taujeerian race, evacuating them to the nearest moon. Now, we embark on the rangers' next big adventure. Enjoy!**

Shiro jolted awake from his rest screaming. He had just had yet another bad dream about his captivity at the mercy of the Galra. Bits and pieces of the dream began to come back to him, he remembered being strapped to a cold metal table with Galra scientists probing his body endlessly, but he was then rescued by one of the Galra scientists. He told him his name, Ulaz and that he was a member of a defecting resistance made of Galra who resist Zarkon called 'The Blade of Marmora'. Ulaz also told him about the power cards and that they were in danger of being found by the Galra, so he had to find them before Zarkon did, that was all Shiro could remember. Shiro then turned to the door to see Allura standing in the doorway.

"Shiro, are you alright? I heard you screaming" Allura said as she walked over to Shiro and sat down by him on his bed. Allura was wearing a pair of pajamas that Carter had given to her, simply a white t-shirt and pink fuzzy pajama pants with white kittens on them.

"I'm fine, Allura. Just a bad dream, I'm no stranger to them" Shiro told her.

"Would you like to talk about it? It didn't seem like just a bad dream to me" Allura asked, gently persisting that Shiro tell her. All the black ranger did was sigh and emerge from under the blankets and stood up.

"It was an old memory of when I escaped. But I didn't do it alone, one of the Galra scientists defected from the empire and helped me escape" he told her, making Allura shocked.

"That can't be right. Galra are heartless beings who only care about the destruction of our world" Allura protested, refusing to believe that a Galra would help a Power Ranger.

"But it is right, and no matter what you wanna believe, it was a Galra who saved me. And he was also the one who told me about the power cards" Shiro said.

"I think we should continue this conversation with Carter and the other rangers" Allura suggested, which Shiro agreed with and went out of his room with her to the command center.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Haggar had just completed the new Robeast to battle the rangers, this time she had built it out of one of the Galra's prisoners, a former general who was falsely accused of treason named Praxas. Using her magics, she had created a robotic version of him which had no legs, but just small rocket boosters similar to that found on a space shuttle, a large face that looked exactly like his old flesh and blood face, and two large arms. After construction was completed, she entered the throne room and bowed down, Zarkon was sitting in his throne which was turned away from the door.

"Yes, Haggar, what is it?" Zarkon asked, not turning around to face her.

"Praxas' transformation is complete. He is now ready to take on the rangers the next time we learn of the whereabouts" she told him.

"Good, very good" he answered.

"And I also wanted to say something else. In the event this one fails as well, I have an alternative way of destroying the rangers" Haggar added. She then pulled out a small wooden chest with glowing purple Galra symbols on it. Zarkon then turned the throne around and held out his hand.

"Let me see" he ordered gently. Haggar handed him the chest and she opened it for him. Inside was something he didn't expect to see at all. Just as he got a five second look, Haggar shut the chest back up and took it back.

"But this is only if the warrior we already have fails" Haggar told him.

"Yes, of course. You may carry on" Zarkon said, giving Haggar his permission to leave and continue her work.

 **-Back on Earth-**

"Are you sure about this?" Carter asked Shiro. All the other rangers were now surrounding Shiro in the living area, dressed in their normal clothes and their gauntlets securely mounted onto their arms.

"Yes, the reason I knew about the power cards when I first came back to Earth is because of Ulaz. And I keep getting the feeling that he may know something, something that could be useful to us" Shiro told him.

"Like the plans to his space station?" Hunk asked.

"Or possibly the location of another Legend-Zord" Pidge piped in.

"Whatever this guy thinks Shiro has, it could possibly mean a huge step further into defeating Zarkon. We're going to have to find a way to get in contact with him" Carter told the other rangers.

"I still think it's a bad idea. What if this Galra was lying and that he's luring us into a trap?" Allura piped in.

"That's a chance we're going to have to take, princess" Keith told her.

"Besides, the fate of the galaxy could depend on it" Lance added. The alarms then began going off and all the rangers were now on highest alert.

"Intruder alert, intruder alert!" it said repeatedly.

"Find whoever that is and take him down" Carter ordered. The other rangers nodded and ran out the door, placing their cards inside their morphers as they ran.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they all shouted together. Their ranger suits appeared on them and their power swords immediately activating the minute they took the hilts off their belts and ran towards the wormhole generator. When they approached the wormhole generator, they saw an individual wearing some armor that looked like Galra armor. The armor itself was entirely black and dark gray with four curved glowing lines on the chest, and on the face was a mask with two glowing lines on the sides and three circular visors on it, covered by a black hood. Also, mounted onto the back was a sheath which held a Galra sword.

"I know the Galra well enough that whoever that is looks like some kind of Galra assassin" Lance said as he prepared to attack, power sword tightly gripped in his hand.

"How did he get past the command center's defenses?" Keith asked.

"More to the point, how did he find us?" Pidge added.

"We'll ask question later after we knock his sorry Galra butt to the floor. Astro Rangers, attack!" Shiro ordered. All the rangers charged towards the unknown Galra intruder. Keith attacked first and tried slashing his ankles, but the intruder did a back flip to evade the glowing red blade of the red ranger's power sword and swung his hand at him, hitting the side of his helmet knocking him down to the floor. Once he landed on his feet, he withdrew his sword which had a slightly curved blade and had a glowing Galra symbol on the hilt.

"That looks like a sharp sword" Hunk said nervously at first glance of the blade.

"Let's see if that sword's sharper than it looks" Pidge said as she jumped onto a wheeled table and began riding towards it like a surfboard towards the intruder. Pidge then jumped off the table just as the intruder slashed his sword at her, but instead of hitting her, he cut the table clean in half.

"Woah, that thing IS sharper than it looks" Pidge said before she landed on one of the benches near the master computer. Lance then tried attacking when the intruder had his head turned towards the green ranger. Without even looking, the intruder raised his sword up and it clashed against the blue glowing blade of Lance's sword.

"How does he do that!? Seriously!?" Lance cried out in outrage and shock before the intruder kicked the blue ranger away by forcing his foot into his stomach and forcing him back and landing onto a stack of oil barrels. Shiro then attacked alongside Hunk, but the intruder still showed great skill in his swordsmanship as he deflected both rangers' blades and tripped Hunk using his leg. Shiro now was the only ranger standing and was able to deflect any attack from the sword or the leg of the intruder.

"Why are you here!?" Shiro asked.

"I didn't want to fight. I only come seeking an audience with Shiro, but it seems you forced this fight upon me, and yourselves" the intruder said before he pushed Shiro's power sword blade away using his own metal blade and backed up. Shiro didn't bother attacking, all he did was power down his sword and reattached the hilt to his belt.

"Power down" Shiro gently said, reverting back to his regular clothing and his ranger uniform disappeared.

"It's you" he said before pressing a button, which caused his mask to remove itself and his hood pulled down as well. To Shiro's shock, he discovered that the intruder was Ulaz, the same defecting Galra who freed him from Zarkon's grasp and told him about the power cards.

"Ulaz, is that you?" Shiro asked.

"Of course, I was able to find you quite easily using the code I placed inside your arm" Ulaz said with a smile.

"Power down guys, this is the guy I was telling you about" ordered Shiro. All the other rangers did as asked and reverted back to their regular state.

"Forgive us for attacking you like that, Ulaz. We thought the Galra had found us and our secret command center" said Shiro.

"Command center? For what?" he asked.

"For the Power Rangers. We found the power cards and their powers have bonded with our DNA, and the lions have acknowledged us as their new masters" the black ranger explained.

"So, you are the Power Rangers? Zarkon hasn't been happy with you interfering with his plans and attempts to thwart his empire to say the least" Ulaz joked lightly.

"Well, we plan to keep it that way" Keith gently said, breaking the silence between the other rangers and Ulaz.

"Shiro was just talking about wanting to look for you" Pidge added.

"I needed to find you as well. The Blade of Marmora has achieved a great victory for those who rebel against Zarkon" Ulaz began to explain his reasons for entering the command center.

"And what's that?" Lance asked.

"We have found one of the Legend-Zords, and it's power card. It hasn't recognized any of our members as a potential keeper, but we do hope that it will ask one of the Power Rangers to be" he explained. This was great news to the other rangers.

"Are you serious? Another Legend-Zord?" Hunk asked.

"What do you mean 'Another'? Have you found one already?" Ulaz asked, confused as to what Hunk meant.

"Pidge already found the Fenrir-Zord. We used it to destroy Zarkon's fleet of battleships when they attempted to kill us on Taujeer" Shiro explained.

"That is good news indeed. The Fenrir-Zord was very wise to choose you" Ulaz complimented.

"Thank you, you're too kind" Pidge said with a humorous manner, bowing like a stage performer.

"How did you find it?" Keith asked.

"We discovered it concealed inside an asteroid field, hiding inside one of the larger asteroids. The power card was stuck in between one of it's claws, but it still glows, it's power not able to recognize any of our members" Ulaz told them. When Carter, Coran, and Allura entered the room, Ulaz jumped slightly.

"Calm down, Ulaz. This is just our commander, Carter Grayson, he's the one who found the power cards and hid them away for us to discover" Shiro told him, which made Ulaz loosen up and bow in respect to Carter.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ulaz" Carter told him.

"How long have you been standing there?" Lance asked.

"And how much did you hear?" Pidge added to the question.

"All of it. And if this Legend-Zord is being kept with you, than you know what you must do?" Carter asked.

"Yes. When we first heard of the Power Rangers and how they destroyed Sendak on Arus, we all agreed to ourselves that the best course of action would be to hand it and it's power card over to you" Ulaz told him. Carter then looked to Shiro and Keith.

"Alright, I want Shiro and Keith to go with Ulaz to retrieve the Legend-Zord. But keep a close eye out for any agents of Zarkon who might be in the area and find you" Carter ordered before walking up to the master computer and took out the book of Legend-Zords and handed it to Keith.

"You'll be needing this to determine which Legend-Zord it is" Carter said as he handed over the book.

"Ulaz, I'll need you to enter the coordinates to where you're keeping this Legend-Zord into the computer in order for a wormhole to be opened properly" Carter said to Ulaz. Ulaz complied and walked up to the master computer, entering the coordinates to wherever he was taking them. Allura didn't take her watchful eyes off Ulaz, she still suspected that this could be a trap. She felt like Shiro's loyalties were misplaced and that none of the rangers should be trusting a Galra. The wormhole was now opened and Ulaz walked over to it, alongside Shiro and Keith.

"What about us?" Pidge asked.

"I'll only have you sent over if an attack happens. This is only a pick-up mission, but if a fight does happen to break out, then you'll be sent" Carter told them.

"Good luck guys" Hunk told Shiro and Keith. And after a few seconds, Ulaz, Shiro, and Keith went through the wormhole and it closed as soon as they entered. Allura then turned to Carter as soon as they were gone.

"How can you be so sure we can trust him?" Allura asked.

"Think about this, Allura. He didn't hand the Legend-Zord over to Zarkon and Haggar. He think it's better off with us, and if handing over a Legend-Zord isn't enough to convince you he's on our side, I don't know what will" Carter answered.

"I can't trust him. I just can't, not after all the Galra have done to me and my kingdom" Allura said before walking away from the others and entering the living room.

 **A/N: There you have it, part one of 'Roar of the Lion'. Now we have met Ulaz and we know that he has a Legend-Zord he means to hand over to the Power Rangers. Despite Ulaz showing his loyalty to the rangers, Allura is very distrustful towards the Galra, thinking that he will betray them and hand the Legend-Zord over to Zarkon. Is she right? Or can Ulaz be trusted? Find out the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	14. Roar of the Lion II

**A/N: Hello guys, and we now pick up where we last left off on 'Roar of the Lion' the next exciting chapter of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. So Haggar has created a new Robeast to fight the rangers, and Shiro is insisting to the others (despite Allura's doubts) to trust Ulaz, a Galra who is a member of a resistance who defect from Zarkon, and who is offering them a Legend-Zord that they found in an asteroid field. Let's see where it goes from here now, shall we? Enjoy!**

The wormhole opened up inside a large ship that looked like the Galra prisoner ship the rangers had been on during their second mission. Ulaz, Keith, and Shiro stepped out into the ship and the gateway closed behind them. Keith and Shiro were fascinated at the sight of the ship's interior design, there were several soldiers wearing the same suits Ulaz wore during their fight in the command center operating computers or guarding the doors to certain rooms.

"Wow, this place is impressive" Keith said. Shiro then ran to the windows to see that there was no sky outside, nor were there any stars, but it looked as if they were inside a glowing purple vortex with lightning appearing on the walls every few times.

"Ulaz, where are we?" Shiro asked.

"In order to preserve our whereabouts from Zarkon, we have perfected the technology to create a pocket in between time and space for us to hide in and avoid the Galra's radar" Ulaz explained.

"Now that's impressive" Keith admitted, piping into the conversation.

"The Legend-Zord, where is it?" Shiro asked. Ulaz then guided the red and black rangers down the hallways of the ship and stopped in front of a large door guarded by two members of the order.

"Who are they?" one of the guards asked.

"These are Keith and Shiro. They are Power Rangers, and we are handing the Legend-Zord we have found over to them, where it's safe" Ulaz explained. The guards then stepped aside and opened up the door so that they could enter. Once inside, neither rangers could believe their eyes to see a large black lion like Shiro's only it had a mane on it made entirely of gold metal, it's forearms were also made from gold, and it's tail was gold-plated as well. The eyes, while not glowing were green.

"Now that is one big kitty" Keith said before he handed the book of Legend-Zords to Shiro for him to read and analyze. Shiro looked through the pages until he found the right one. The page showed an illustration of the same lion that sat before them, only it was standing on top of a large rock, it looked like a screen shot from 'The Lion King'.

"I found it. Leo the Lion" Shiro told them.

"Leo? Isn't that one of the monsters that was slayed by Hercules?" Keith asked.

"It says in the book that after Hercules destroyed his physical body, his spirit was channeled into a large meteor made out of an ancient element that could resist extreme heat such as lava and suns. The Alteans carved a new body for Leo out of that meteor when they discovered his spirit was trapped inside" Shiro read aloud to Ulaz and Keith. One of the guards who was watching over the Leo-Zord walked up to Ulaz carrying a metal chest in his hands.

"It's power card, sir" he said before Ulaz took the chest out of his hands and saluted him. Keith and Shiro then watched as Ulaz lifted the lid of the chest open and revealed the power card resting on a pillow-like surface. Leo's card was gold, while the lion head and the electrical pathway markings on it were black.

"This one looks a little different than our power cards" Shiro said. Keith gently took the card out of the box and looked down at it. After a few seconds of looking, the card lost it's golden yellow glow and the eyes on the lion head on the front glowed green. Growling could then be heard and everyone looked to see that the Leo-Zord's eyes were glowing and it was standing up.

"Do not fire! That is an order!" Ulaz shouted to the other guards. The Leo-Zord leaned it's head downwards to Keith's level and sniffed him. Keith stood completely still, fearing that the Leo-Zord was going to attack him, but after the black and gold lion had finished sniffing him, it lied down on it's belly. Keith had then calmed down and let out a tiny smile, reaching his hand out to pet it's cold golden metal mane.

"Keith, I think the Leo-Zord just chose you to be it's keeper" Shiro spoke in awe.

"I guess it did" Keith said looking back down to the card in his hand. Shiro then noticed a tiny little purple glow generating from inside his vest pocket. He took out his power card to see that it was emitting purple pulses, and then felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Shiro screamed, dropping his card and placing his hands on his head where the pain was coming from, falling to his knees. Ulaz and Keith ran to Shiro's aid and helped him back up.

"Shiro, what's wrong!?" Keith asked, worried for the well being of his friend and fellow ranger.

"I felt someone talking in my head. It was Zarkon" Shiro told them. Keith and Ulaz gasped.

"What did he say?" Ulaz asked him as he helped Shiro back up onto his feet.

"He said 'I've Found You', and that was it" he answered. He then took Shiro and Keith back to the control room and withdrew a holographic-viewing device from the console.

"This will take you to our headquarters. Just tell them that I sent you, and you will receive our allegiance and help" Ulaz told them. Shiro took the device from his Galra friend and shook his hand.

"I can't thank you enough" Shiro thanked him.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Zarkon opened his eyes and smiled, a wicked terrible smile. He then stood up and walked out of the room towards Haggar's laboratory. While still placing the final touches on Praxas, Haggar turned her head to see her emperor standing in the doorway walking towards her.

"Is something the matter, sire?" Haggar asked.

"I was able to track down the rangers through the black lion. It seems that the black lion and I are still connected somehow" Zarkon told her. Haggar gasped in surprise.

"Are you sure?" she asked, wanting to be sure that she heard what Zarkon had told her was as exactly how he said it.

"Yes. Our bond remains but it is very weak. It seems that the black lion has become attached to the black ranger and has formed an even stronger bond with it. A bond stronger than I could have imagined" Zarkon answered before he walked towards the modified Praxas and pressed a button, preparing a pod for him to be transported to where he had located the rangers. Haggar watched as he typed in the coordinates into the computer.

"How come you've never tried this before?" Haggar wondered aloud so that Zarkon could hear what she was saying.

"Like I said, the bond has grown weak due to how long we've been separated. I may not be able to do it again, so let us make what we can out of this" Zarkon told her. When he pressed the button, the pod containing Praxas was shot outside the ship and towards the typed in destination.

"And if this fails, is your alternative still on the table?" Zarkon asked, turning away from the keyboard to face Haggar. She pulled the chest from before out of her robe sleeve and opened it to take out a purple power card with a black dragon's head on the front, and the electrical pathways on it were black as well, it let out a purple glow as it sat in the witch's pale and callused hand.

"Indeed it is, sire" she answered before placing the card back inside the box, putting it back inside the sleeve of her robe and walked out of the laboratory, allowing Zarkon to be alone.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Carter, Allura, Coran, and the other rangers sat around the master computer, waiting for a response from Shiro and Keith in case something was wrong. Lance and Hunk were playing 'Connect Four' on the floor, Pidge was by the wormhole generator playing 'Fetch' with Rover by throwing a tennis ball at one end of the command center, and the wolf ran towards it, picked it up with it's mouth and brought it back to her. Coran was looking in a small mirror, straightening his mustache.

"Anything yet?" Hunk asked. Carter just shook his head and simply replied with a 'No'.

"It's been an hour already. How long do two people need to pick up a Legend-Zord?" Lance complained.

"It is odd, but they haven't reported anything to us regarding a Galra attack, and that's good" Carter told the bored out of his mind blue ranger.

"What if Ulaz betrayed them and is now holding them hostage? What if there is no Legend-Zord?" Allura piped in. Pidge groaned in annoyance at this.

"Calm down, Princess. I get how you have your doubts, but just give them a chance. I'm sure they'll be calling sooner or later with some good news" Pidge said as she threw the ball again and Rover ran off to catch it. A beeping sound came from the computer, and the rangers abandoned what it was they were doing before to run up to listen to the communication. Even Rover went up right by Pidge's side with the tennis ball still in his mouth. Carter pressed the button and began to speak.

"Shiro, Keith, you okay?" he began.

"Guys, we have bad news. Somehow Zarkon managed to track us down using the black lion card, and now we've picked up an incoming projectile heading towards us" Shiro said through the communicator.

"What? Are you sure?" Allura asked, shocked to hear that Ulaz didn't betray them.

"Yeah, I don't know how it happened but whatever that projectile is, it's getting closer" Keith answered.

"Probably another one of Haggar's monsters. Hang on you two, I'm sending the other rangers your way for backup. How's the Legend-Zord?" Carter replied.

"Good, it's the Leo-Zord. It's chosen Keith as the keeper of it's card" Shiro spoke.

"Well then let's make sure that the Leo-Zord stays with us and not fall into the Galra's hands" Carter said before pressing the button to the wormhole generator and causing a portal to open.

"You know what to do, rangers" Allura said, to which Lance, Pidge, and Hunk nodded once before running through the portal and to aid their fellow rangers.

 **-Back on Board the Resistance Ship-**

All three rangers who were sent from the command center landed right in front of Keith and Shiro who now stood in a large hanger where cargo was stored.

"Glad you could make it, guys" Shiro said with a smile, letting them know how glad he was they were here with them now. Loud banging caught their attention and everyone looked to the closed hangar door to see something was trying to break right through it, but all it did was dent the metal.

"Where's the Leo-Zord?" Pidge asked.

"It's safe, but it won't be for long unless we take care of this thing" Keith told her as he withdrew his power card from his vest.

"Well then it seems our mission seems pretty clear, protect the Leo-Zord at all costs and make sure whoever or whatever this thing is is destroyed" Lance suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me" Hunk said. All rangers placed their power cards into their gauntlets.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they all said together, and their ranger suits and helmets appeared on their bodies, replacing their previous clothing. The banging on the hanger door kept on going, and some of the dents expanded as whatever was causing them to be in the door grew bigger and bigger. Soon, the entire hanger door was busted right through the door's seams and Praxas revealed itself to the rangers.

"Well this guy's certainly different" Lance commented on the appearance of this new Robeast. Praxas then opened his mouth and it started glowing pink.

"Everybody duck!" Shiro ordered. All the rangers fell to the floor and dodged one large pink laser beam that destroyed a large pyramid formation made entirely of metal storage crates, all that remained of it was a puddle of melted metal that glowed orange and emitted steam from the pink energy beam.

"Woah! That stuff is strong!" Pidge said in disbelief.

"If that thing fires another and it hits us, we're all gonna be toast, literally" Keith said as he stood back up.

"Hunk, seal that thing's mouth back up" Shiro ordered. Hunk nodded and took the hilt off his belt and flipping the black switch, activating his element blaster.

"Element blaster, engage!" Hunk shouted before he began firing mud ball after mud ball at Praxas' mouth. Each one of the mud balls that Hunk fired at Praxas' mouth were incinerated when they touched the plasma that resided inside.

"What!? It had no effect!?" Pidge shouted in disbelief.

"How is this thing even beating us right now? It doesn't even have legs!" Lance contributed to the shouting.

"Legless or not, this thing's still going down. Rangers, attack!" Shiro ordered, and all the rangers ran towards Praxas, their power swords activated and held tightly in their hands. Praxas then opened his mouth and fired another energy beam at the rangers, it almost hit Pidge and Keith, but they either ducked underneath it or jumped over it to try and attack the Robeast. Pidge tried to disable the booster rocket that allowed Praxas to move around, but he moved upwards and causing the green ranger to miss and crash into a wall. Keith tried attacking above Praxas, but due to his booster rocket, he swerved to the other side and Keith landed on the floor on his back.

"Okay, that really hurt" Keith rasped after hitting the floor.

"Hey at least you didn't hit the wall" Pidge said in response to the red ranger's statement. Shiro and Lance helped Pidge up off the floor, while Hunk helped Keith up. All five rangers stood still as Praxas prepared to fire another beam at them.

"Brace for impact guys" Shiro said. Everyone shut their eyes, preparing for the beam to strike them, but none of them felt the burn of plasma striking them. Curious, all the rangers opened their eyes back up to see Ulaz lying unconscious on the floor with a molten hole in his armor and his chest.

"Ulaz!" Keith and Shiro cried out in unison and ran towards him. The fallen Galra weakly tried holding his eyes open and took Shiro's hand into his own.

"Shiro, listen to me" he began weakly.

"What is it, Ulaz?" Shiro asked, sounding as if he was about to cry underneath his helmet.

"Never stop fighting, Zarkon must be destroyed. Keep the fight going" Ulaz rasped before turning his head to Keith.

"And you, Keith" he said.

"Yes, Ulaz?" Keith answered. Ulaz then pulled out from his back the Leo-Zord's power card and handed it back to him.

"The Leo-Zord has chosen you, keep it safe. And never stop believing" Ulaz finally said before closing his eyes and his grip loosened in Shiro's hand before his limbs went limp and he slumped on the floor, dead. Keith never felt so much anger than he felt right now, and Shiro felt grateful, Ulaz saved him and his friends, and now he would never be able to repay that debt. Keith then stood up and took a fighting stance in front of Praxas to face him.

"Keith, what are you doing?" Shiro asked.

"Trust me, the Leo-Zord will guide me, I know it will" Keith said while looking down at the card, the green eyes on the card flashed once before Keith raised the card up to the sky.

"Engage Lion-Heart Battlizer!" Keith called out to the sky. The card disappeared in his hand as golden lightning surrounded it and a powerful set of armor surrounded Keith's ranger suit. On his arms were now large black gauntlets that looked pretty bulky and had the appearance of the Leo-Zord's head and upper chest, with the golden mane and glowing green eyes, it's mouths open to reveal Keith's hands. On his shoulders were golden lion head shoulder pads, his chest had on a protective chest plate on it that was black, but it had glowing green eyes on the sides of it, a lion's nose in the very middle, and on the bottom was a top set of lion teeth. Keith's legs also had new boots, which looked like lion's paws with the golden claws sticking out the toes, and on top of his ranger helmet was the top of a lion's head with the top jaws sticking out.

"Lion-Heart Battlizer activated!" Keith cried out as he now took a fighting stance. The other rangers had their eyes open wide (underneath their helmets) in awe at the sight of Keith's new Battlizer.

 **A/N: And there you have part two of 'Roar of the Lion'. Keith has been chosen to the keeper of the Leo-Zord's power card, Ulaz sacrificed himself to save the rangers, proving that Allura was wrong and that not all Galra serve Zarkon, and Keith has unlocked the Lion-Heart Battlizer. In the next chapter, we will get to see how powerful the Battlizer makes Keith when he faces Praxas. More to come in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	15. Roar of the Lion III

**A/N: Welcome to the third and final part of 'Roar of the Lion'. In the last update, the Legend-Zord that the Blade of Marmora was keeping for the rangers was the Leo-Zord, the spirit of Leo the Lion. Zarkon was able to locate the location of the rangers using his weakened link to the black lion card and send forth the new Robeast, Praxas to the pocket in between time and space to where the ship was hiding. And just as Praxas was about to destroy the rangers, Ulaz sacrificed himself to save them. Now, since Keith was chosen to be the Leo-Zord's card keeper, he has unlocked the Lion-Heart Battlizer. Now, this is where the fight gets even more intense. Enjoy!**

All the other rangers were in complete awe of the Battlizer that Keith now had on his body. Keith felt the Leo-Zord's power channeling throughout his armor and felt like he was stronger than before. Praxas began approaching the rangers again and prepared to launch another light beam attack at Keith. The eyes on the gauntlets on the red ranger's arms began glowing green.

"Lion gauntlets!" Keith shouted before charging towards Praxas. Just before the Robeast could fire his laser blast at him, Keith began punching Praxas in the face repeatedly, and the strength that came with the gauntlets caused each punch to dent the metal that his face was made of. Praxas began to grow weak and he could hardly hover in place.

"Look, it's growing weaker" Pidge said pointing at Praxas, who was now being tossed around back and forth against the walls by Keith.

"That Lion-Heart Battlizer is really giving us an advantage" Lance added. Shiro then looked outside to see that outside the ship, the space pocket's walls that still emitted lightning. He was getting an idea and began to speak to Keith.

"Keith, toss him outside the ship!" Shiro ordered.

"You got it!" Keith responded. Out of the gauntlet's eyes came out two single barrel cannons.

"Sonic-boom blast! Fire!" Keith said as he pointed the cannons at Praxas. Out of the barrels came glowing gold bullets that emitted a sonic pulse when they hit the surface of Praxas' armor and sent him flying outside the ship right through the destroyed and dented hanger door. Shiro then ran towards the edge of the ship where the door used to be and began focusing all his energy. He felt so much elemental power surging through his veins, he was accessing his elemental power.

"Power of the sky!" Shiro shouted, which echoed throughout the ship and the space pocket. A massive lightning storm began emitting throughout the space pocket and many lightning bolts came together to form one giant one and it struck Praxas right in the mouth, causing him to lose the power to fire his lasers and he fell back down to the hanger covered in smoke and carrying a hole in the center of his body.

"He doesn't look like he can take anymore. Finish him, Keith!" Shiro told him. Keith then nodded to Shiro in agreement and the gauntlets began surrounding themselves with gold lightning and began glowing bright yellow as well.

"This is for Ulaz, you Galra scum! Lion gauntlets, final fury!" Keith shouted as he ran towards Praxas and jumped up, raising his arms above his head and then slammed them down on Praxas' head, which not only dented it harshly, but also causing the mechanics of his body to malfunction terribly and explode to pieces. All that remained of Praxas now was the purple Galra crystal that resided inside his body. The crystal grew and and more crystals began growing around it until it was bigger and fit to the shape of Praxas' body and then the crystals broke apart to reveal that Praxas had been reborn and grown up to massive size, creating a massive hole in the roof of the ship.

"It never gets easier, does it?" Hunk asked.

"No it doesn't. And sometimes, I like it like that" Lance said.

"Spirit of the lions, ascend!" all the rangers said, which sent forth their lions and all five rangers jumped up inside the heads of their lions.

"Form Mega-Zord!" all the rangers shouted in unison. Within one minute, the lions had formed the Mega-Zord and now stood on the roof of the ship facing Praxas.

"The Battlizer can't be used on the Mega-Zord so we'll have to think of something else to take it down again this time" Shiro told them.

"But how? By now the Galra have been studying every weapon we've thrown at them. How can we take it down this time?" Pidge asked. Keith then saw that the Leo-Zord's power card was glowing in his hand, and so was a card slot glowing in the keyboard as well.

"I think the Leo-Zord wants me to add it's power to the Mega-Zord" Keith piped in.

"Just like Pidge did with the Fenrir-Zord" Lance added.

"How do we know it'll be just as powerful as the Wolf Cannon to take down this guy?" Hunk asked.

"It's a chance we'll have to take. Do it, Keith" Shiro told him. Keith then inserted the card into the slot.

"Lion Hammer, engage!" a mechanized voice inside the Mega-Zord said. The Leo-Zord then jumped out of the ship through the hole that Praxas created and pounced on Praxas' back, sending him falling forwards. When it jumped in the air, the Leo-Zord's body began to change shape, it's waist began to grow smaller, the arms and legs folded into it's sides and it's head and body were now in the shape of a sledgehammer. The tail of the Leo-Zord straightened itself out and folded itself downwards to the center of it's shortened midsection to the length of a hammer's handle, and the lion's mane began growing spikes at the edges.

"Woah, now that looks like a powerful weapon" Pidge said in admiration of the Lion Hammer which was now held inside the arm that Keith controlled.

"Looks like this big-mouthed fire spitter is going down now" Shiro said. Keith smiled at how powerful the Lion Hammer looked and placed his hands on the controls. With one shift of the gears, he swung the hammer at the side of Praxas' head and dented it, as well as sending him flying farther back from where it previously stood. Praxas then hovered back up and prepared to fire at the rangers again. Once the laser had been fired at the Mega-Zord, Keith held up the hammer in front of them and the Lion Hammer absorbed it's powers, it now glowed pink and emitted bolts of purple lightning.

"Keith, what did you just do?" Lance asked.

"I think I just absorbed the energy from that last attack, and the hammer now has the power stored inside it" Keith said.

"Which means, we can use it's own power against it and gain an advantage over it!" Pidge explained.

"Good idea, go for it!" Shiro called out. Keith then made the arm make a lunging motion with the hammer tightly gripped in it's hand, the purple and pink bolts of lightning launched out of the top of the hammer and towards Praxas, hitting it directly in the face and going right through it's eye, creating a large hole.

"Looks like you were right, it can channel an enemy's attacks against it's original source" Hunk said, surprised at how powerful the Lion Hammer was, and how Pidge's theory was correct on how it worked. Praxas was still hovering despite losing an eye, and slowly approached the Mega-Zord.

"Let's hit it again!" Keith cried out and made the hammer swing at Praxas, only this time he hit the booster rockets and completely broke them apart from the rest of his body. Praxas was now immobilized and lied on the surface of the roof, trying to crawl towards his opponent.

"Keith, hit it one more time, then without a doubt it'll be destroyed" Shiro suggested.

"Let's do it for Ulaz!" Keith said before he raised the hammer above the Mega-Zord and it began absorbing the lightning that surrounded the walls of the space pocket and it the Lion Hammer to glow bright yellow.

"Lion Hammer, grand slam!" all the rangers chanted in unison and Keith slammed the hammer down on Praxas' back and the force on the slam was so powerful that his entire body was obliterated into millions of tiny little pieces that began floating in the zero gravity environment that came inside the space pocket. Everyone cheered for their victory and then once the Mega-Zord and Lion Hammer disappeared, all the rangers also powered down and jumped back down inside the hanger.

"Looks like we've got another Legend-Zord on our side" Pidge said to Keith. Everyone then saw as Shiro picked up Ulaz body and walked up to him.

"Shiro? Are you okay?" Hunk asked. Shiro had tears at the edges of his eyes, looking down over his only Galra friend's body.

"He saved us, he trully was a brave soldier"Shiro said.

"I guess Allura was wrong, I guess you can trust at least SOME Galra" Lance added.

"But there is good news" Shiro said as he pulled out the holographic viewing card from his pocket.

"We have the coordinates to the Blade of Marmora's headquarters. If we ever need any help from the other resisting Galra, we can go there" Keith said as he gently took the card from Shiro and held it out to show the others.

"But for now, we're taking Ulaz back to Earth and giving him a proper burial" Shiro told them. Pidge then told Carter through her gauntlet communicator to open a wormhole back home and they all went home in silence.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Haggar was now bowing before Zarkon who sat on his throne, tapping his fingers on the armrests of his throne.

"I have good news and bad news for you sire" Haggar told him.

"What's the bad news?" Zarkon asked.

"The bad news is that Praxas failed to destroy the rangers, and was destroyed by the rangers using the powers of the Leo-Zord" she stated.

"And the good news?" Zarkon snarled, not happy with the bad news. The mention of the good news caused Haggar to smile and stand back up.

"We get to act out our alternative plan" she simply said, and Zarkon was smiling too.

"That is good news. The Power Rangers will be too distracted with this that they'll hardly have any time for us anymore" Zarkon chuckled to himself at the thought.

"Indeed, I will be boarding a shuttle to Beta-Traz to bring back my selected candidate" Haggar told him.

"Good, very good. Contact me when you have returned and we shall begin the process" Zarkon ordered.

"As you wish, sire" Haggar said before leaving Zarkon alone in his throne room.

"You may have won this battle, Power Rangers, but I promise you that I will emerge victorious this next time" the emperor whispered to himself before erupting into evil laughter.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Outside the command center, Carter and Coran had dug a grave for Ulaz. Shiro had wrapped Ulaz' body up in a dark red blanket and held it together with some rope. All the other rangers were gathered around the hole that Carter and Coran had dug and watched in silence as the black ranger placed the body inside the hole.

"Ulaz, you were there to save me when I was nothing more than a prisoner and a surgical toy of the Galra, and now you've saved me again when hope's resurfaced for the galaxy. I promise that you won't have died in vain, and that we will destroy Zarkon and restore it's freedom. I owe you my life, and now because of what Zarkon sent to destroy us, I will never be able to repay that debt. Rest in peace, friend" Shiro said before he took out another blanket and unwrapped it to reveal Ulaz' sword and gently placed it right on top of the body.

"That was a beautiful eulogy, Shiro" Carter said, patting his shoulder in comfort.

"Thanks Carter, a proper funeral and burial was the least he deserved" Shiro replied before Carter pulled him into a hug, which he returned. When they broke the hug, Shiro looked to Allura and gave her a glare that showed that he was angry with her and walked away from the others and back inside the command center. Allura was confused as to why Shiro gave her that angry glare.

"What did I do?" she asked.

"I think he's angry because you prejudged him, despite all he did for us. You kept on saying we shouldn't have trusted him, but in the end he proved himself despite everything you said about him" Hunk said with his arms crossed against his chest.

"As it turns out, you were wrong about him. There are Galra who rebel and want to help us" Keith added. They all walked back into the command center right behind Shiro. Allura had a lot to think about and watched in guilt as she watched Carter and Coran bury Ulaz with the sword resting on top of his corpse.

 **-At Beta-Traz-**

Beta-Traz was a space station designed as a prison for all those who defied or resisted Zarkon's rule. Inside one of these cells was Pidge's brother, Matt Holt. Matt had been in Beta-Traz for what he could only estimate was five months after he was transferred and no longer was forced to fight other prisoners for Zarkon's entertainment. Matt's hair looked a lot like Pidge's hairdo, only it stuck out in some places due to intense amounts of torture such as sleep deprivation, electro-shock therapy, and repeated beating with batons from the guards. His arms were amputated and replaced with mechanical prosthetics like Shiro's arm was, and was put through numerous medical forms of torture as well. Matt was now curled up into a ball on his bed with his back against the wall, whispering things to himself.

"No more, please. I just wanna go home. I wanna see my mom and dad, and my little sister, Katie. They're worried sick about me, please just let me go" Matt whispered loud enough for the surveillance cameras hidden in the darkest corners of the ship to hear. The door to the cell opened and Haggar entered it, with the box in her hands and by her sides were two Galra sentry bots holding guns. Matt looked up with shaking and tear filled eyes to see who was looking down to him.

"Matthew Holt, this is your lucky day" Haggar said, showing him a wicked smile that would make a seven year old boy wet himself, and give him nightmares. Matt didn't know what Haggar wanted with him, but it couldn't have been good.

 **A/N: There you have it, the third and final part of 'Roar of the Lion'. Now the Leo-Zord's true powers have been revealed and the Lion Hammer's power was enough to destroy Praxas. Shiro's also unlocked his elemental powers of the sky as well, and has shown to be slightly angry at Allura for all the things she said about Ulaz and how he would betray them. Bad news is that Haggar is using Matt for something that cannot be good at all. Find out what it is in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	16. Black Hole Fury part 1 I

**A/N: Hello, and welcome everyone to the newest update of 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. In the last update, Keith had unlocked the powers of the Leo-Zord and therefore unlocking the Lion-Heart Battlizer, and the Lion Hammer, which turned out to be a great tool for the Mega-Zord in defeating Praxas, the newest Robeast created for the Galra to destroy the rangers. In the end, Shiro, Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance gave Ulaz a proper funeral back on Earth, and Allura has come to realize that not all Galra are evil as she thought. Zarkon and Haggar now act out their 'Alternative' to destroy the rangers, and it involves Pidge's brother Matt. Enjoy!**

On board Galra Central Command, and inside Haggar's laboratory, Matt was strapped down to a medical gurney that was bolted to the floor. The poor human was screaming in pain due to painful amounts of electro-shock therapy that Haggar was performing on him. Haggar stopped emitting bolts of lightning into his body as soon as she saw Zarkon enter the room and walk over towards her. Matt's prisoner outfit had now been swapped with a skintight black long sleeve shirt, as well as skintight black pants, and black slip on shoes too.

"How are the preparations on our ranger, Haggar?" he asked.

"Perfectly, sire. He shows great promise" Haggar told him before she pulled out a larger wooden chest and opened it to reveal a morpher gauntlet similar to the ones the rangers wore, only it was black and purple, and the semicircle that normally would be on the back was replaced with a triangular spike with one smaller spike on the left and right sides of it.

"With this morpher, and the power card combined along with it, he will be the perfect warrior to destroy the Power Rangers. And once they're destroyed, we will restore your empire to it's former glory my master" Haggar said before she took the morpher gauntlet out of the box and placed it on Matt's right robotic arm. Zarkon then placed is hand on Matt's face, just right underneath the shaking human's chin and tilted it towards his direction.

"It's like Haggar told you before she brought you on board this ship, today is your lucky day. You are my one-way ticket to the destruction of the Power Rangers" Zarkon said. Matt didn't respond and just whimpered at the Galra emperor's terrifying gaze into his eyes. Once Zarkon took his hand off Matt, and looked to Haggar, giving a lone nod. She then took out the chest that held the dark power card inside it and opened it.

"Welcome to the Galra empire, my evil Black Hole Ranger" Haggar said before she opened the gauntlet up and placed the card inside. Once the back slot with the card slid back inside the gauntlet, Matt began screaming again, and struggling as well. When Matt stopped, he opened his eyes to reveal that they had turned purple and broke free of the straps that restrained him to the table with just a single tug. Once free, he got back on his feet and bowed down to his new master.

"How can I serve you, my emperor?" asked Matt.

"You will be coming with us to Volcanus. It is a planet surrounded by rivers and lakes of lava, we will lure the Power Rangers out and you will demonstrate your powers to us" Zarkon told him.

"Yes, my lord" Matt said before he stood back up and followed Zarkon and Haggar out of the laboratory.

 **-Back on Earth-**

All the rangers were in Pidge's room. She had called them into her room to show them all something that she had been training Rover to do for a while. After a few days of practice, she felt like she was ready to show them all.

"So, what is is you've been wanting to show us?" Keith asked the green ranger, who sat in front of her computer and opening her iTunes account. The wolf was lying down on his belly on Pidge's bed with his head perked up

"Rover and I have been practicing something that I think will really amaze you. Ready boy?" she asked to the wolf after speaking to her friends. Rover barked once as if he were to say 'I'm Ready'. The green ranger then pressed the play button on the song she wanted to play, and 'Who let the Dogs Out' by Baha Men.

 **"Who let the dogs out?"**

"Bark! Bark Bark Bark!" Rover yipped at the 'Whoop! Whoop Whoop Whoop' part of the song. It made Shiro and Keith let out a few chuckles while Lance and Hunk laughed at the performance Rover was giving them. Pidge then smiled and chuckled slightly before she paused right in the middle of the song, which made Rover look up to her with a look like he was saying 'Why'd you stop?'. Lance huffed and crossed his arms against his chest and grumbled underneath his breath.

"Lucky, I wish I had a Legend-Zord to play with and teach tricks to" Lance said, slightly jealous of how Pidge and the Fenrir-Zord had a strong bond with one another. Keith was still bonding to the Leo-Zord and it's card, but it still had a bond with him, much like Pidge and Rover's.

"That was pretty funny, Pidge. You should film it and upload it onto YouTube, might get a lot of hits" Hunk suggested.

"Thanks Hunk" Pidge said, thanking her fellow ranger and friend. The alarms began going off all around the halls and inside all the rooms with the mechanized voice saying 'All Rangers to the Master Computer'. Rover stayed inside Pidge's room while the rangers ran to where they were requested to be and Carter, Allura, and Coran were waiting for them, and on the Master Computer's screen was a bird's eye view of a ground surrounded by lakes and rivers of lava, there were even volcanoes too.

"What's wrong, Carter?" asked Shiro.

"We've picked up signs of Galra on Volcanus. It's an uninhabited volcanic planet, yet there's a Galra shuttle on the planet's surface" Carter said before he zoomed in with the image to show the shuttle sitting on it's landing gear nearby a lava river.

"How many are there?" asked Shiro.

"Surprisingly, not much. From what the computer's been telling us, there are only three life forms on that planet that came off that shuttle" Allura told them.

"Only three? It's not like them to be sending only three soldiers" Pidge said, commenting on the situation they were focusing on.

"Not only that, we've detected that only two of those life forms are Galra. The other one is human" Coran said. This news came as a slight shocker to the other rangers.

"Are you sure?" asked Keith.

"We've scanned it through the computer three times, it's no mistake" Carter told them.

"Well, is he friend or foe?" asked Hunk.

"Unknown. We're sending you out to take out whoever is on that planet. And if the human is a friend, bring him back here" Allura told them. Carter then pressed the button for the wormhole generator and opened up the portal to Volcanus. All five rangers jumped through the wormhole together and it closed right behind them as soon as they jumped through.

 **-On Volcanus-**

Everyone jumped out of the wormhole and landed on the ground once they jumped out the portal. The rangers could feel the extreme heat coming from all around them radiating from the lava rivers and lakes, the active volcanoes exploded every few minutes and had lava dripping down from their fronts, sides, and backs into the lakes and rivers, and ashes fell down from the skies like snow. To some of the rangers, this planet looked like it was something out of an extremely painful nightmare.

"Lava, why of all places did they have to pick a planet that was surrounded by lava and fire?" Lance complained.

"Yeah, I know. It's like when Obi-Wan fought Anakin in 'Revenge of the Sith'. One wrong move and our fates could be even worse than Vader's" Pidge agreed with Lance.

"Why couldn't they land on a planet surrounded by beautiful cherry blossoms?" Hunk complained, agreeing with Lance and Pidge's.

"Just quit complaining. The sooner we take care of this mission, the sooner we can get back to base and dust all these ashes off our clothes" Keith told them. The yellow, blue, and green shut their traps after hearing what Keith said. Shiro lead the rangers further until they reached the ship right below them. They all stood on a hill where a large rock sat, and hid behind it, peeking their heads out the sides to get a glance at who was standing right outside the door of the shuttle.

"Who are those guys? I don't think I've ever seen them before" said Keith. Shiro recognized one of them, he recognized the armor, the cape, the helmet on his head, and the scar that ran down one of his glowing pink eyes.

"Zarkon? What's he doing here?" Shiro asked aloud to himself.

"And I take it that ugly lady with the stringy long hair and the over-sized hooded bathrobe is Haggar, right?" asked Hunk.

"Without a doubt" Shiro answered. Everyone then had their eyes fixed on the hooded individual that stood on Zarkon's left side. Without a doubt, this was the human that Allura and Carter told them about. They were wearing a cloak with a hood, the hood concealing their faces and their identities.

"And that must be our human" Pidge said.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's grab him and wormhole our way back to the command center" Lance said, about to leave his hiding spot, but Shiro grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back behind the rock.

"Remember what Carter said, we don't know weather or not this guy is really a friend, or if he's helping the Galra" Shiro reminded him.

"He's right, we can't afford to make any rash decisions that we'll come to regret later. Especially when it comes to this" Pidge added.

"Come on, we have the perfect opportunity here. Zarkon and Haggar are here in one place, so why not slay them and end the fight for good?" Lance suggested.

"Because we don't know what they're capable of. We've never seen them or how they fight before" Keith said.

"We don't even know if they have Legend-Zords and harnessed their ranger powers for themselves" Hunk told Lance.

"Okay, you guys are right. There are so many things that can go wrong here" Lance admitted out loud.

"Our best plan of attack is to jump out on him all at once. He'll never see this coming" Shiro told them. All the other rangers nodded with him agreeing about the battle plan that the black ranger suggested. On the count of three, all of them jumped out from their hiding spots and landed right in front of Zarkon and Haggar, taking fighting stances. Zarkon let a small smile come onto his face and let a sinister chuckle come out in between his teeth.

"So these are the Power Rangers? These weak little imbeciles are the ones who've been causing my armies so much trouble?" Zarkon asked.

"We're here to take you down Zarkon. It's better than you just surrender and lay down any weapons you may be carrying. You will be judged for your crimes against the galaxy" Shiro said in a harsh tone. Zarkon chuckled again and shook his head.

"You are truly pathetic to think you can destroy me" he said. Haggar then stepped forth.

"So, we meet at last. My monsters may not have stood a chance against you before, but let's see how you handle my newest creation" Haggar said, and the human wearing the cloak stepped forth in front of Zarkon and Haggar before taking their hood off to reveal themselves as Matt Holt. Shiro no longer held his fighting position and gasped in shock.

"No, it can't be" he whispered. Pidge was now smiling and had tears of happiness brimming in her eyes.

"Matt!" she said, running towards the brother she thought she had lost long ago. Shiro grabbed the back of her vest and held her back behind him.

"Wait, that's not Matt. I don't recognize his eyes" Shiro said, noticing that Matt's eyes were now purple and not the golden brown that he remembered back when they first became friends back at the Garrison academy.

"How right you are, black ranger" Matt spoke up.

"When you defeated Praxas, we had come to realize that the only way to destroy you was to create a Power Ranger of our very own" Haggar said. Matt then pulled something out of his sleeve and pulled it out to reveal the purple power card with a black dragon's head on the front along with black electrical pathways surrounding it.

"Behold, my Black Hole Dragon Card" said Matt.

"Look, he's got a power card!" Lance said, pointing his finger at the card.

"It can't be" Pidge muttered.

"Where did you get that!?" Keith demanded to know. Matt just gave off an evil smile and pulled off his robe to reveal that he was wearing the same outfit he was wearing before when Haggar was experimenting on him and revealed the gauntlet that was mounted on his arm.

"He's got a morpher gauntlet too!?" Hunk exclaimed. Matt opened up the gauntlet and placed his card inside it. When the back slot closed up with the card still inside, Matt did what the rangers did when they morphed.

"Black Hole Power, Supercharge!" he shouted. With a flash of purple, Matt was now covered head to toe with armoring. The entire suit was dark purple like the card was, his helmet was in the shape of a dragon, and in the dragon's mouth was the black visor that covered up his eyes and mouth as well as the rest of his face, the red glowing eyes were above the forehead of the mask. On his shoulders were silver shoulder guards with three spikes on it, and on his chest was a silver chest guard with two glowing red gems that represented eyes, two small dots on the bottom that looked like a nose, and on the bottom of the chest guard looked like teeth. On his forearms were silver gauntlets with three spikes on them like Batman's, his belt had a circular buckle with a dragon's head on it, and his boots were silver too.

"Behold, my Black Hole Ranger!" Haggar shouted.

"What!? Zarkon has a ranger of his own!?" Keith asked.

"A-And he's my brother. No, this can't be! THIS CAN'T BE! NO!" Pidge said, tears now falling down her eyes in pain to see that her brother was now fighting for the enemy.

 **A/N: And there you have part one of 'Black Hole Fury Part 1'. Looks like Matt is now the Power Rangers' newest enemy, the Black Hole Ranger, which spells bad news for Pidge since now she's being forced to fight the one thing she loves more than anything in the world. So now that the Black Hole Ranger has been revealed, what will it mean for the others? Find out in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	17. Black Hole Fury Part 1 II

**A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back to 'Power Rangers: Astro Force'. Matt Holt has become the evil Black Hole Ranger, the ultimate enforcer for the Galra empire, much to Pidge's heartbreak and shock on Volcanus. Now, the Black Hole Ranger faces off against the Astro Force Rangers in front of Zarkon and Haggar who are spectators to Matt's new evil powers. Enjoy!**

The Black Hole Ranger reached onto his hip to pull a hilt similar to the power sword hilts that the Astro Force Rangers had on their belts whenever their suits were on and took it off his belt. His hilt was silver, and instead of a lion head, there was a dragon's head on the very tip of it.

"Black Hole Blade, engage" Matt said in a voice that sounded similar to Darth Vader's voice, there was a voice emitter in the mask that changed his voice whenever he had the suit on. Out of the dragon's mouth came a blade that was surrounded by purple and pink flames which crackled on the blade before them.

"Your inferior weapons and armor are no match for me" he said as he held an attacking position at the rangers with the sword in his hands.

"Matt, this isn't you. Zarkon is using you as a pawn, this isn't the Matt I know" Shiro said.

"The Matt you once knew is no more, black ranger. Haggar and Zarkon have unlocked my true potential and have given me the power to destroy you all" Matt told them.

"Well then you leave me no choice" Shiro responded. All the rangers took their cards out and placed them in their morphers.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" they chanted together. Their suits covering their bodies, their helmets covering their faces and their power sword hilts tightly grasped into their gloved hands.

"Engage power swords!" all the rangers said, their own colored blades emerging out of their hilts.

"What is it you wish for me to do with them?" Matt asked to his master who stood behind him.

"Break them, crush their spirits. But do not kill them" Zarkon said to him.

"As you wish, master" Matt said before running towards the rangers with the flaming sword pointed towards them in a lunging position.

"Pidge, I know he's your brother, but we don't have a choice right now" Keith told her.

"Astro Rangers, attack!" Shiro commanded. They all followed him forth into battle. Shiro was the first to engage the Black Hole Ranger in combat, their power sword blades clashing against one another, black, pink, and purple embers and sparks emitted off the blades with each clash.

"How can you be fighting for them? After all we've been through together!" Shiro asked as he pressed his blade against the Black Hole Ranger's.

"You fail to realize the errors you've made in choosing to fight Zarkon instead of fighting for him" Matt replied. He pushed Shiro away and swung his leg at Shiro's helmet, which sent him flying against a rock and him landing on his face, cracking the glass on the visor. Pidge was the next to attack, she was hesitant to attack but realized that he was completely under enemy control. Pidge's green blade was about to strike when he stood still, looking down at the fallen Shiro, but raised his own blade up and blocked it, and pushed her away, he did it as easy as it was to snap a twig with bare hands.

"Not bad, green ranger. But not good enough" Matt said before he swung the sword at her, which hit the center of her chest and sent her flying and rolling onto the ground, which dirtied her suit up with the ashes that lied on the ground. Keith then got angry at how Pidge was knocked down and attempted to attack next, but he found himself clashing blades against one another.

"She's your sister and you just knock her down like a tower of blocks!?" asked Keith as he tried his best to prevent himself from being toppled down onto the ground by the Black Hole Ranger.

"I have no family, I live to serve Zarkon" Matt replied before he slammed his blade down on Keith's with great force several times before he knocked it out of Keith's hand and then gave a hard elbow jab to his stomach. The red ranger groaned in pain and was on his knees and hands, and Matt kicked him in the back of the head, which could have been a skull fracture if his ranger helmet hadn't been guarding his head. Once Keith had been knocked down to the ground, Matt noticed that Hunk and Lance tried attacking at once, but with using the one free hand, he grabbed Lance's hand which held the sword and twisted it.

"Lance!" Hunk shouted as he saw the Black Hole Ranger twist the blue ranger's arm and causing it to fall out his hand, deactivating the blade once it hit the ashy ground. Hunk tried attacking to help free his friend, but his blade was blocked by the other one, surrounded by the flaming blade of Matt's sword.

"Uh oh, not good" Hunk said to himself before his blade was pushed away and Matt lashed his across Hunk's belly, which sent him flying and landing near the edge of the lava rivers. Lance was shouting in great pain as Matt kept a tight grip on it and twisted it slightly more, and then was forced back by a kick to the chest by the Black Hole Ranger's boot and he landed right next to Keith. All the rangers then got back up stood by their fellow rangers' sides and stared directly at the Black Hole Ranger.

"I don't remember my brother being this strong before" Pidge said as she held her hand over where Matt's sword struck.

"It's Haggar's magic, she's tainted that power card with it, that's whats making him so strong" Shiro told everyone.

"I say we change our attack plan" Lance said, swapping from his power sword to his element blaster.

"Agreed" Keith said, swapping to his blaster too. Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk got out their blasters as well.

"Foolish rangers, you're not the only one with 'Cool Toys'" said Matt as he pressed his thumb down on the black switch on his hilt and his sword changed to a blaster too. This blaster looked entirely different than the blasters that the rangers held in their hands, it had the appearance of a Nerf N-Strike crossbow which was covered in a silver coating unlike the rangers' element blasters which had a gold coating, and some of the armor plating on the top was black and the bow area as well.

"Black Hole Crossbow, engage!" Matt called out.

"He has a crossbow!?" Lance asked out loud in shock, fearing that their chances against that weapon would not be good at all.

"That thing looks tough" Hunk added.

"Chaos quivers, fire!" Matt said as he aimed the crossbow at the rangers and shot multiple purple glowing energy-spikes at them. All of them landed a few inches away from where the rangers stood and then they exploded, which sent all the rangers flying back and landing onto the ground. Each ranger struggled to get back up and face Matt.

"Don't even bother getting back up, or this next blast will be sure to eliminate you" the Black Hole Ranger warned them, holding up the crossbow over his shoulder.

"We'll see who's eliminating who" Keith said as he was now on his feet, clutching his injured arm.

"Let's try combining our swords on him, he can't be expecting that" Pidge suggested.

"Right" all the others said, agreeing with him. All the rangers swapped their blasters with their swords and had their blades touching to combine and form the infinity sword which sat inside Keith's hands.

"Infinity sword! Power strike!" all the rangers chanted together and Keith made a slashing motion which sent the wave of energy that came from the blade to go flying towards Matt.

"I don't think so! Chaos quivers, fire!" Matt said as he took the crossbow off his shoulder and shot three energy-spikes at the energy wave and it was so powerful that the power strike from the infinity sword was destroyed and created a powerful blast which caused the rangers to go flying backwards away from their previous stance once more.

"I warned you, but you just didn't listen. Now your demise is for certain, Power Rangers" the Black Hole Ranger taunted as he reverted his crossbow back to his hilt and reattached it back onto his belt. Despite how overpowered they were, the rangers were not giving up on taking down their opponent.

"Any other ideas?" asked Shiro.

"Only one, form Mega-Zord" Hunk suggested.

"We may not be able to take him down by ourselves but maybe the Mega-Zord can" the yellow ranger continued.

"I say we go for it" Keith agreed.

"It may be the only shot we have" Pidge agreed as well.

"But what if it doesn't work?" Lance asked, he was now having doubts about taking the Black Hole Ranger down. Anything they threw at him, he came back strong and took them down like bowling pins.

"And what if it does?" Shiro asked.

"Let's try and see what the Mega-Zord can do!" Keith said.

"Spirit of the lions, ascend!" they all commanded together and the lions appeared from the sky and opened their mouths up. Once the rangers jumped into their mouths and went inside the lion's control panels, the rangers gave the command to form Mega-Zord and it stood tall above Haggar, Matt, and Zarkon.

"You fail to see that you are doomed to fail no matter what you try, rangers" Matt said looking up at the Mega-Zord's face.

"What do you mean?" asked Shiro.

"I too can form a great power" Matt said before he put his middle and index fingers of his right hand up to the sky and shouted a command.

"Black Hole Dragon, arise!" he shouted. The lake of lava that was right in front of Zarkon's shuttle began bubbling and rising up as if it were a geyser and out of that lake of lava came what appeared to be a Legend-Zord which took the form of a dragon. The body was entirely purple as well as the head, arms, and legs while the neck, tail, and wings were silver, and in the center of the chest was a triangular jewel that glowed a darker shade of purple, much like it's eyes. The appearance of the dragon itself looked similar to that of a Hungarian Horntail dragon.

"Now that looks like one angry dragon" said Hunk in horror. The dragon's eyes looked to the Mega-Zord's and then opened it's mouth to shoot a stream of fire in the color black. The flames struck the chest of the Mega-Zord, which caused it to lose it's balance and fall backwards onto the ground. Everyone was shaken up by the fall.

"Everyone alright?" Shiro asked to the others who aided in controlling the Mega-Zord.

"We're fine" Lance said as he moved the controls forth to get them standing up again. The Black Hole Ranger then crossed his arms together against his chest and chanted another command.

"Black Hole Dragon, transform!" he shouted before jumping into the dragon's mouth. The dragon began standing on it's hind legs and the claws of the forearms folded back to reveal two hands, the neck shortened and the mouth opened up to reveal a menacing metal face, the wings folded up and attached themselves to it's back.

"Fury-Zord, awaken!" Matt shouted. All the other rangers took their hands off their controls and stared at the transformed dragon's new form.

"Matt has a Mega-Zord?" Shiro asked aloud.

"But how?" Pidge asked.

"I don't know" Keith piped in.

"Maybe this time you will learn when enough it enough, rangers" Matt said as he made the Fury-Zord take a stance in which it stuck out it's chest towards his enemies.

"Dark-Star pulse, fire!" he shouted. Out of the triangular jewel shot out a black beam of energy surrounded by pink and purple lightning. When the Mega-Zord was struck by the Dark-Star pulse, the entire thing disbanded without anyone giving the order to and the lions disappeared as well. The rangers then fell back onto the ground, their suits powering down and disappearing as well without nobody giving the command either, their cards still inside their gauntlets. The Fury-Zord disappeared too, and the Black Hole Ranger stood in front of the weakened rangers.

"Y-You won't get away with this" Keith weakly said, trying to stand up from where he fell but the pain he was in caused him to fall back down into the ashy ground. Pidge looked up at Matt who's suit had now just powered down and took the card out his gauntlet and put it back in the pocket of his pants, tears were in her eyes once again, clouding her vision and she began to sob.

"I will let you live with your failure for now. But, I will not be so easy on you next time, rangers" Matt said before he walked back towards Haggar and Zarkon who were smiling in victory.

"You have done well, Black Hole Ranger. You have made your emperor proud" Zarkon said. Matt just bowed in respect and said 'Thank you' before they walked up onto the shuttle and flew away. Shiro held up his gauntlet and accessed the communicator to contact Carter.

"Carter... open up the portal. W-We failed" said Shiro. The wormhole opened up in front of them, and Keith, Shiro, and Hunk helped Lance and Pidge get back up onto their feet in their injured and broken states to walk right through the portal and take them back to Earth for medical care and counseling.

 **A/N: There you have it, part two of 'Black Hole Fury Part 1', Matt has proven to be a great adversary as he has humiliated the rangers, nearly kicking their butts and almost killed them. The Black Hole Dragon and the Fury-Zord have proven to be incredibly dangerous as well. But what will happen in part three? Find out in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	18. Black Hole Fury Part 1 III

**A/N: In the last update, we saw Matt become the all powerful Galra enforcer known as the Black Hole Ranger, and how with a power sword of his own as well as a Black Hole Crossbow, he took down the rangers and their Mega-Zord, using his Fury-Zord which transformed from his Black Hole Dragon-Zord. The rangers then went back to Earth injured, humiliated, and broken from their battle, but no one has been more hurt at Matt's turn to evil than Pidge. Now, we continue where we left off and see how the rangers are handling their defeat. Enjoy!**

Inside the command center, Allura was wrapping bandages around Pidge's chest where Matt's blade had struck her, wearing only her pants and a sports bra, silently sobbing to herself not at the pain, but at how her heart ached because of what the Galra did to her brother. Lance had a couple muscles slightly by how their enemy twisted his arm and had to have a brace over it. Keith was sitting by the master computer holding ice on where Matt kicked him on his head. Hunk was rubbing disinfectant on the scrapes he had received in battle and Carter helped place bandages on where the scrapes were. Shiro stood shirtless in front of a mirror to see the bruises that came from all of Matt's attacks, as well as stitches on a cut below his chest.

"Are you okay?" Allura asked. Pidge only nodded in response at what was asked. All eyes were focused on Pidge, eyes that showed worry for the green ranger. When she put her shirt back on as well as her vest, zipping it back up she looked to the rangers with tears falling down her eyes once more.

"I'm so sorry. I never wanted this to happen. I never thought that one of our greatest enemies would have to be my only sibling. I just want him back" she said in a brittle voice before covering her eyes and began crying into them. Lance walked over to her and pulled her closer to him for a hug, letting him cry into his chest, which Pidge returned and hugged the blue ranger back.

"This isn't your fault, it's Zarkon's. He did this to Matt. But I promise you that we're gonna get him back" Lance told her softly, whispering into her ear. Shiro got an angry face and punched the mirror he once looked at with his robotic arm and broke it where he punched.

"How could he turn Matt against us!? I can't believe Zarkon just created his own evil Power Ranger out of someone I've come to consider one of my bestest friends!" Shiro shouted, anger in his voice. Carter walked up to Shiro.

"Shiro, please calm down. It's like Lance said, we'll get him back" Carter said in reassurance.

"Yeah, but how? We don't even know how Haggar is controlling him!" Shiro said in great frustration as he walked over to the coffee table and took his shirt off and placed it back on his body as well as his vest.

"I didn't even think mind control was possible" Coran said as he brought in some hot beverages for everyone to have. Keith and Hunk took one and sipped softly on them. Shiro took one as well, but only looked down into the brown liquids that resided inside it.

"I agree, but what I also find surprising is how Haggar managed to manipulate a Legend-Zord as well" Carter added.

"Mind control is an advanced form of magic, it doesn't really surprise me that Haggar knows how do perform it" Allura said, putting the bandages back in the first-aid kit that sat right next to her.

"I noticed something odd too" Hunk piped in, all eyes on him.

"What are you talking about?" Carter asked.

"Inside that giant jewel in the Black Hole Dragon-Zord's chest, I saw the bottom of an arrow" said the yellow ranger.

"What?" all of them asked in unison.

"It was on the left side, lodged into the bottom. It had purple energy pulsating all around it" Hunk told them. Lance's eyes widened in realization and ran up to the master computer and over to the drawer where Carter kept the book of Legend-Zords. He came back down with the book and skimmed through the pages until he came across the page he was looking for. On the page, there was a tree with small gold orbs dangling from the branches and surrounding it was what looked exactly like the Black Hole Dragon-Zord. And right next to the wording on the other page was the picture of an arrow.

"Woah. It's the same Zord" Pidge said as her bloodshot eyes widened and looked down at the illustration.

"He's right" Keith said as he looked over Lance's shoulder.

"What does it say?" Allura asked.

"It's the Draco-Zord. The Zord contains the spirit of Draco" Lance said.

"Draco? I don't think I've ever heard of it" said Shiro. Lance looked over to the other page and began reading the words aloud to the other rangers.

"Draco was the dragon who guarded the golden apples of Hera, the queen of the Greek Gods. He was a viscious protector and whoever got close enough to the golden apples to absorb their powers or wisdom met their demise at Draco's claws" Lance read to them.

"Now I remember, we read about this back in sixth grade. Hercules was told to steal them as one of his labors" Keith said, coming to a realization.

"But where does the arrow that Hunk mentioned fit into all this?" asked Pidge asked. Lance skipped a few paragraphs until he reached the paragraph about the arrow and continued to read aloud.

"It says that when Hercules was ordered to steal the golden apples, he first had to kill Draco with a poisoned arrow" Lance said before he closed the book.

"Did it say anything about mind control?" asked Allura.

"No, it just ends when Hercules shot the arrow into Draco" Lance answered. Carter then came to a realization and spoke up.

"You said that the arrow had purple energy pulsing around it right?" he asked Hunk, who nodded.

"It's not Matt who Haggar's really controlling, he's under the influence of whom is really being controlled" told Carter.

"How so?" asked Shiro.

"I've read once before that some mind control spells can be performed using cursed objects. If the one being controlled has the said cursed object even near them, it can render them powerless and unable to do anything of their own free will. Haggar might have done this with the arrow that Hunk saw and put a charm on it" said Carter. Pidge snapped her fingers and spoke up.

"The Draco-Zord is what's causing Matt to be Zarkon's servant!" she exclaimed.

"And the card is the cursed object, as long as Matt is near the Draco-Zord or has it's card in his possession, he's a mindless slave to the Galra" Shiro added.

"But there's another problem to face, how are we even going to get the arrow out of the Draco-Zord's chest? As far as I can think of the only way to free it is to pluck the arrow straight out of it's chest" Lance said.

"Looks like we've got some planning to do, now don't we?" asked Allura, the other rangers nodded to her in agreement and then ran into the living room. Pidge was the only one who didn't follow the others and stayed near the master computer. Rover then walked up to Pidge, who scratched behind his ears with a sad smile. The green ranger then walked up to the keyboard which controlled the wormhole generator and then up to the master computer itself. She then began typing on the keyboard and began locating all over the galaxy where Galra Central Command was. The coordinates finally came up and she typed in the coordinates into the wormhole generator's keyboard. Before she pressed the activation key, she took up a notepad that sat next to the master computer's keyboard and wrote them a note telling them where she was going and what she was doing there.

"I'm sorry guys, but this is just something I have to do" Pidge whispered to herself before leaving the note next to the wormhole generator's keyboard. She then pressed the button and walked over to the coffee table, picking up her morpher and placed it on her right arm and ran right through the wormhole which closed right as soon as she went through.

 **-In the Living Room-**

Carter was able to obtain footage of their battle with the Fury-Zord on Volcanus from the cameras installed inside the Mega-Zord's eyes. Using the remote, he paused on when the Fury-Zord had been formed from the Black Hole Dragon and began zooming in on the chest area and saw the arrow that was lodged inside the chest gem like Hunk described.

"There's our arrow" Carter said, placing the remote down next to him.

"How are we gonna pull it out? The Black Hole Dragon is gonna defend itself, making it as difficult as possible for us to try and pluck the arrow right out the center jewel" Lance spoke up.

"Matt would even stand in our way. He's not even gonna let us get within at least teen feet close to his own Zord" Shiro said.

"No matter how we plan our attack, there's always an obstacle or some kind of barricade that would prevent us from trying to get the arrow out" Hunk added.

"This may be more difficult than we may have first thought" Keith said, standing up as he took a close look at the freeze frame of the Fury-Zord's chest. Carter then stood up and cleared his throat to speak to the others.

"I may have an idea of what we could do. But in order to do so, I need to go outside the command center on my own" Carter said.

"But why? What's this plan of yours anyways?" Allura asked.

"You'll see when I return. Everyone, Allura's in charge until I get back" Carter said before he walked out of the living room and down the hall towards the exit. Everyone looked at one another and spoke.

"What could Carter be coming back with that's so important that he can't tell us now?" Hunk asked.

"It's a little fishy, but we have to trust Carter. He's always had our backs and given us good advice whenever we needed it" Keith said.

"He's also the one who turned us into rangers. Without him, we wouldn't even be here" Lance said. Shiro then began noticing that they were one ranger short. He looked all over the living room and noticed that Pidge was nowhere to be seen.

"Guys, I know this is off topic, but has anyone here seen Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"Is she not here?" Lance asked, looking over his shoulder and saw that Pidge wasn't in the room.

"Where could she be?" Keith added. Everyone then ran out of the living room and saw the note she left on the table. Shiro picked the note up to read it aloud to the others.

"Guys, I'm sorry but this is my fight and my fight alone. Matt's my brother and it's my responsibility to bring him back and snap him out of Haggar's spell. I hope you'll forgive me for making such a stupid choice to go and fight him alone, but I think I may be able to get through to him. Yell at me all you want when I get back, but I won't stop until I bring my brother home. - Pidge" Shiro said.

"The wormhole generator's been used. It says a few minutes ago that the coordinates that were entered were for... Galra Central Command!" Coran shouted in horror.

"She's gone to face the Black Hole Ranger alone!? She's gonna get herself killed!" Lance shouted in worry, his heart was beating so fast he felt like it was going to come busting out of his chest.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Matt was now bowing before Zarkon, who sat on his throne with Haggar standing on his right. The two of them were more than pleased with his performance on Volcanus, as well as how he operated his sword, crossbow, and his Zord against the rangers. Zarkon was laughing to himself while Matt bowed, smiling and facing the Galra's emperor who had great reason to be happy right now.

"Not even a scratch on him, might I add, sire" Haggar said.

"You're right. He may be too strong for them that they may have to call themselves Powerless Rangers!" Zarkon shouted out laughing.

"I am glad I have pleased you, my lord" Matt said before he stood back up.

"You have done me proud. Next time, it is time you finish the job, destroy the Power Rangers for good" Zarkon said in response to his new servant's comment.

"Not a problem, my emperor" Matt said. All eyes were now fixed on the wormhole that opened at the entrance to the throne room, out of it stepped Pidge who had an angry look on her face.

"Remember me?" Pidge asked. Haggar only chuckled at the sight of her.

"Well well well, what have we here? The green ranger, all by her little lonesome" Haggar said in a manner that was meant to be insulting.

"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to him" Pidge said, pointing her finger at Matt.

"Of course, my dearest little sister. Tell me, have you come to your senses and decide to join us?" Matt asked with his arms crossed.

"No, I came to bring you back to Earth with me" she said.

"Why would I? I'm having so much fun just the way I am" Matt replied. Pidge snarled and took her power card out the pocket of her vest.

"You are my brother, Matt. Family doesn't give up on one another. I swore I would never stop looking for you, and now that I have, I'm not leaving until I take you back with me" Pidge said as she inserted the green lion power card into her morpher gauntlet.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" she shouted, which activated her ranger suit and helmet. Once she took the hilt of her power sword off her belt, the green blade activated by itself and she took a defensive position with it.

"You should really learn when to quit" Matt said as he inserted his own power card into his gauntlet.

"Black Hole Power, Supercharge!" Matt said, and his armor had been placed onto his body. He also took his hilt off his belt and the purple and pink flaming blade emerged from the top.

"I don't care how long it takes, you're coming with me one way or another" Pidge said.

"A little mono e mono, huh? Don't mind if I do" Matt said.

 **-To Be Continued-**

 **A/N: And that wraps up 'Black Hole Fury Part 1'. Next chapter we get into 'Black Hole Fury part 2' in which we get to see what happens next, as well as some questions answered. Why is Lance so worried for Pidge all of a sudden? What is this weapon Carter is talking about? And how will the battle between brainwashed brother and sister turn out? Find out in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	19. Black Hole Fury part 2 I

**A/N: Welcome to part two of 'Black Hole Fury'. The Black Hole Ranger has been introduced and has proved to be a great adversary to the Power Rangers since he badly beaten and humiliated them on Volcanus and used his Black Hole Dragon-Zord to take down their Mega-Zord. Now, with the discovery of the Draco-Zord and it's weakness as well as how to free it of Haggar's mind control, Carter has left to search for a weapon that can possibly help them in battle. Pidge has also left too for Galra Central Command behind the other rangers' backs to fight Matt and take him back to Earth. Enjoy!**

"Why would she go alone? Walking into Galra Central Command without any backup is considered to be near suicide" Allura asked in worry.

"Her morpher isn't here, so she didn't go unarmed" Keith said.

"And I suppose that makes it better!?" Lance shouted at the red ranger.

"Lance, calm down. We're all worried right now" Shiro said with one hand on Lance's shoulder.

"Why are you even acting like this? You've I've never seen you behave like this before" Hunk piped in. Everyone's eyes were now fixed on Lance, who was struggling to find the right words to explain his behavior.

"Can't we just forget about this?" Lance asked.

"Not until you answer the question, Lance" said Hunk who grabbed Lance's shoulder as he was about to walk away and pulled him back to where he was originally standing.

"Okay, okay fine! I like her, okay!?" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs and it faintly echoed through the command center's walls. Everyone else's eyes were widened in shock and surprise at the sudden revelation and realizing why Lance didn't wanna tell everyone.

"Aw, Lance and Pidge sitting in a tree! K. I. S. S. I. N. G!" Hunk teased the blue ranger.

"Will you shut up!? That's not important right now!" Lance exclaimed at Hunk.

"He's right, we have to go to Galra Central Command as well and help Pidge our before she gets seriously hurt" Shiro said, piping into the conversation and changing the topic from Lance's crush on his fellow ranger to the task at hand.

"What about Carter's weapon?" Allura asked.

"I don't know about you guys, but we can't wait for Carter considering the situation we're facing right now" Keith told her. Allura then walked over to the wormhole generator and locked onto the previously set coordinates.

"I'll hold the fort down from here, just try your best not to get your butts kicked all over the place like on Volcanus" Allura said.

"You know we can't make that promise. Matt's stronger than ever now that he's the Black Hole Ranger" Shiro told her.

"I know, but you can at least try" she replied before pressing the generator's button. The wormhole then opened up in front of them. Shiro lead the rangers through the wormhole and prepared to fight at Galra Central Command.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Pidge and Matt circled around the throne room with their swords held up high and prepared to attack the other that stood in front of them. Matt charged towards the green ranger first but she took the defensive stance and blocked her brother's power sword and kicked him in the side of his chest armor but it didn't affect him and Pidge was launched backwards and landed on the floor.

"You're a quick thinker, green ranger. I have to give you that" Matt said turning his head back to Pidge who was standing up from where she fell.

"Thanks, I guess I learned it from you" Pidge said with anger in her voice as she picked her hilt off the floor and reactivated the green blade.

"When are you ever going to learn that your brother is dead and that I am his superior form that he never even bothered to look at deep inside himself and achieve a higher power?" asked the Black Hole Ranger.

"How about never? You're still the same Matt I grew up with and love as my brother. Just break free, you don't have to fight for them" Pidge said, trying to convince him.

"Maybe this should get the message through your thick skull" said Matt as he swapped from power sword to Black Hole Crossbow and fired multiple purple energy-spikes at her. A majority of the spike struck her body and blew her away from where she stood and her back hit the glass of the windows in the throne room. Just as she was about to get up, she felt Matt grab her by the back of her ranger helmet and lift her up.

"Some rangers just never learn" he said before he let go of her helmet and then tightly gripped the back of her neck and tossed her to the other end of the throne room and her body hit the exit door that was shut. Her ranger suit disappeared when she lied weakly on the floor. Pidge tried to get back up but then felt Matt's foot on her back and felt herself being shoved back down onto the floor. His crossbow was swapped back with his sword and held it upside down, preparing to lunge it down into her back.

"Guess your friends are about to be one ranger short" Matt chuckled. A flash of bright light then shone by them and a blue blade blocked Matt's. It was Lance, he was already in his ranger suit and blocking the Black Hole Ranger's flaming purple blade.

"Stay away from her you overly-armored freak!" Lance shouted as he gave Matt several elbow jabs to the stomach where his chest armor didn't cover him and caused his enemy to fall backwards and drop his sword to the side. Once Matt was backed away, the other rangers surrounded Pidge and Lance.

"You okay?" Shiro asked.

"A little bruised, but I'll manage" Pidge said as she tried getting up again, but Lance held her back down and took her into his arms.

"Take it easy, you need to rest" Lance said.

"You take care of Pidge, we'll handle this guy" Keith told Lance, who nodded in response.

"Three more rangers to destroy? This must be my lucky day" the Black Hole Ranger said as he reactivated his power sword and twirled it around with his wrist.

"You're not thinking straight Matt. Haggar has you and the Draco-Zord under her control, but I know you can break free" Shiro told him. All Matt did in response to the black ranger's words was laugh at him and took a defensive position with his blade. When the red, black, and yellow rangers charged to fight the Black Hole Ranger, it was just Pidge and Lance alone with one another. Pidge looked up to Lance's helmeted face with half closed eyes.

"You blocked the weapon, you saved me. Why?" she asked. Without giving the command, Lance powered down and his ranger suit disappeared.

"You're worth saving to me. You always have been to me" he told her while gently caressing her hair. Pidge smiled at this and brought herself closer to Lance and pressed her head against his chest, using it as a source of comfort and listening to his heartbeat.

"I-I'm so sorry, Lance. I just wanted..." she was about to continue, but Lance cut her off and gave her a gentle 'shush'.

"I know, and I'm really sorry about what happened too. But I did promise that we were gonna get him back, and we still are" Lance gently told her while holding onto her still. The Black Hole Ranger was still fighting the others and like the last time he had the upper hand against them. When the red, yellow, and black blades of their power swords touched the enemy's blade, he swiped his leg underneath theirs and made them trip and fall onto their backs.

"What kind of person pummels their own sister senseless!?" Keith asked as he stood back up and he swapped his blade and took up his element blaster.

"Yeah! You're her family, dude!" Hunk agreed, still holding tightly onto his sword.

"I have no family, only my masters, Zarkon and Haggar" Matt replied.

"They are NOT your masters, Matt! They're only using you as a pawn to destroy us!" Shiro said as he was the last of the fighting Power Rangers to stand back up.

"He knows not what you speak of, black ranger. His loyalty belongs to me and my emperor alone. Nobody, not even you can free him" Haggar spoke up, who along with Zarkon was watching the entire fight in silence on the throne.

"Not true, we know the truth about the Draco-Zord!" Keith said, pointing his finger at her.

"And we know how you've been controlling it using the arrow stuck in it's chest!" Hunk shouted along with Keith, pointing the blade of his power sword at her.

"You're smart, yellow ranger. And I thought you were just the bumbling idiot of the team" Haggar said before she teleported away from Zarkon's throne and appeared behind Hunk where she kicked him in the back and forced him down onto the floor on his stomach. Shiro saw Haggar being so close to him as an opportunity to attack the witch, so he lunged at her, but Haggar moved out of the way and grabbed onto Shiro's wrist and twisted it. To add more pain, she emitted an electrical shock to the twist and he fell to the floor unconscious and his ranger suit powered down by itself.

"Shiro!" Keith called out before he pointed his blaster at Haggar and fired a powerful stream of fire. Holding up her hand, Haggar blocked the flames and absorbed them into a large blazing sphere.

"Now it's the red ranger's turn to feel the burn" Haggar spat before she shot the fiery sphere forth and blasted Keith in the chest which knocked him against the glass windows and knocked him unconscious as well. Galra guards came inside the throne room and grabbed each ranger by their arms and had them all face Zarkon.

"At long last. The Power Rangers have been defeated and now stand before me, broken" Zarkon boasted.

"And we have you to thank, Black Hole Ranger" Haggar said. He bowed and his suit disappeared.

"I would do anything for you, my masters" Matt said before he stood back up.

"Now, what shall we we do with them, sire?" Haggar asked to Zarkon. He stood up from the throne and walked down towards them and looked into Shiro's eyes.

"I want to set them as an example to everyone in the galaxy. Let them all know what becomes of those who try to resist, and make them understand that they were meant to be ruled" Zarkon said aloud.

"Are you implying we have broadcasted execution?" asked Matt.

"Yes, I am. A broadcasted execution would show them all that anyone who resists my rule will die. And that all who have tried to overthrow me in the past have failed, especially the Power Rangers!" Zarkon exclaimed, and the guards who held the rangers securely in their grasps cheered as well. Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro looked terrified at the mention of being executed and their deaths being broadcasted all over the galaxy for everyone to see.

"An excellent plan, sire. Where shall this execution take place?" asked Haggar.

"I will have it on the moon of Drakina. We have held many executions there, and this one will be the greatest one in history. The execution of the Power Rangers Astro Force, I can imagine now as Galra across the universe cheer as the life is drained from your bodies slowly and painfully" Zarkon said in a harsh and teasing manner, wanting the images he was imagining planted into his prisoner's heads and wanting to break and bend them before his will.

"You're a monster" Keith snarled.

"Chain them up and put them on the next shuttle to Drakina. The Black Hole Ranger and myself will be on board shortly" Zarkon ordered.

"Yes sir!" the guards shouted as they dragged the rangers out of the throne room. Little did they know, in the shadows and above the throne was a cloaked figure who watched as the rangers were taken away. The figure exited the throne room through the vents and then followed them into the hanger where all shuttles rested and were repaired and refueled.

"Hold on rangers, I'm coming" said the figure in a male voice. He then saw as the rangers had their morphers confiscated with the power cards still locked inside them and then placed in glowing pink energy cuffs and then forced onto the shuttle. To avoid being seen, the figure jumped out of the vent and hid behind some cargo containers and then sneaked aboard the shuttle the rangers were about to be placed on and hid inside the cargo storage. After a few minutes, he could feel the ship moving and could tell that the shuttle had now taken off.

 **A/N: And there is the first part of 'Black Hole Fury Part 2' and so much just went down right now. Pidge was badly beaten (yet again) by her own brother, and saved by Lance just as he was about to kill her. While Shiro, Keith, and Hunk fought the Black Hole Ranger, Lance confessed his love for her, and in the end the rangers were captured and ordered by Zarkon to be executed. But who is this mysterious figure who means to come to the rescue of our captive rangers? Find out in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	20. Black Hole Fury part 2 II

**A/N: Welcome to part II of part 2 of 'Black Hole Fury'. The Astro Force rangers have been defeated by the Black Hole Ranger with some additional help from Haggar. Now, with the rangers captured and at Zarkon's mercy, he's ordered them to be executed on the moon of Drakina and it will be televised to everyone in the galaxy. A mysterious cloaked man has stowed away aboard the shuttle that is taking the rangers to Drakina in an attempt to rescue them. What will happen? Read to find out! Enjoy!**

On Drakina, the rangers were now in the center of a large stadium where thousands of Galra sat in the seats all around the building. Each ranger was restrained to a stone pillar, their hands chained above their heads and midsections tied to the pillar centers. Matt, in his Black Hole Ranger suit was standing right next to the pillar that had Lance restrained to it, and in his hand was the sack that contained their morphers and power cards.

"I told you rangers, defeating the Galra empire would all be for nothing" Matt told them. Pidge was struggling to break free, but her chains and ropes were tied too tightly.

"Pidge, stop struggling. The ropes are too tight, I couldn't even break free of them" Shiro told her. As requested, Pidge stopped struggling and sighed in defeat. Lance, seeing how sad she looked, decided to speak to her.

"Pidge, I wanted to tell you something" Lance said. It caught Pidge's attention and her eyes turned towards him.

"If we do actually die on this planet and we don't escape, there's something I wanna tell you. I love you" he told her. This made her give off a saddened smile on her face.

"Aw, Lance. That's so sweet" she said.

"You know, if we manage to escape I'd like to take you out for dinner sometime" Lance offered.

"If we don't die here tonight, I'd really like that" Pidge replied. Drums now went off all over the stadium and the audience went silent. Out of one of the doors came out five robotic Galra sentries with larger guns that looked different than the ones they normally carried, they looked like cannons with purple spikes running down the barrel and down to the trigger. The further the sentries got closer, the more the rangers could feel their hearts racing. Zarkon stood up from the larger corner of the stadium where a throne sat and watched with a smile as the executioner sentries approached the rangers with their cannons in their arms. The mysterious cloaked figure stood on top of the large screen which displayed what was going on in the field. Once the sentries stood about five feet away, the drums stopped beating and Zarkon spoke into a microphone on a stand.

"Citizens of the Galra empire, and inferior being across the galaxy. Tonight you shall witness the deaths of the most infamous rebels in the history of the galaxy... the Power Rangers!" Zarkon shouted, making the audience erupt with loud roars of cheer.

"With these, the most powerful cannons the cosmos has ever seen, the rangers meet their demise as the piercing heat melts not only through their chests, but the hopes of everyone across this galaxy who dares defy my rule!" Zarkon continued. The sentries then began setting up tripods to set the cannons on and the drums resumed their playing. After the cannons were set on the tripods, they looked up to Zarkon.

"You may fire when ready" Zarkon said to them on the microphone. The sentries nodded one time and loaded the cannons with large glowing orange shotgun cell looking bullets. Keith, Hunk, Shiro, Pidge, and Lance shut their eyes tightly and prepared for death to take them. Just as the cannons were about to fire, a golden blur rushed past the cannons and their barrels were sliced in half and landed on the ground. The rangers opened their eyes back up and saw what became of the former instruments of their demise.

"What the...?" Shiro asked aloud.

"What did that!?" Zarkon demanded to know. The golden blur rushed past the sentries and their bodies exploded into pieces when the blur ran right through their chests. The blur then attacked the cameras and the screen was deactivated. The golden blur then ran past the pillars where the rangers were tied to and the ropes and chains were destroyed.

"I can't believe it, that thing just helped us" Pidge said in disbelief.

"Whoever or whatever that thing is, I'm sure glad he's on our side" Hunk said happily. The blur then landed on top of the door where the executioner sentries entered and revealed themselves to be the cloaked figure who crept aboard the ship. Horrified, all the Galra in the audience ran out of the stadium and now it was empty, the only ones inside being Zarkon, the rangers, the Black Hole Ranger, and the cloaked figure.

"Emperor Zarkon, you have not only tried to kill the Power Rangers, but you have also tried to rid the galaxy of hope. And now I'm here to take your Black Hole Ranger down, and destroy more of your soldiers!" the figure called out. He took off his hood to reveal the face of Carter.

"Guys, look! It's Carter!" Keith called out pointing to Carter.

"Just who do you think you are, foolish human!?" Zarkon roared in outrage.

"My name is Carter Grayson, a former firefighter and a former Power Ranger as well, now I serve as the mentor to these new rangers. And NOBODY messes with MY rangers" Carter said before pulling out the sleeve of his robe a power card. The entire thing was blue and it had a golden hawk-like on the front with gold electrical pathways surrounding it. The rangers gasped and were wide-eyed in surprise.

"Guys, it's another power card!" Pidge exclaimed.

"That must be the weapon he was looking for" said Shiro said. Carter then removed his robe and revealed what he now wore underneath. Instead of the mechanic's jumpsuit he usually wore, this time his outfit was similar to what the rangers wore, a black long-sleeve waffle-pattern shirt, a vest that was blue and had the picture of a bird inside a gold circle over where his heart was, and dark blue skinny jeans as well. On his right arm was a morpher gauntlet only it was gold and dark blue, and on the sides there was a folded gold wing near where the semicircle would be on the end, and on the left and right sides of the button were two glowing green eyes, and on top was the design of a beak.

"Check it out! A morpher gauntlet!" Lance said when he saw the gauntlet.

"But that could only mean..." Keith said but stopped. Carter pressed the button on the gauntlet and spoke up to Zarkon.

"Hope you don't mind I join the party, Zarkon. Because this whole stadium is about to get lit!" Carter said before he placed his own power card inside and it shut by itself.

"Phoenix Force, Supercharge!" Carter shouted out. With a bright golden glow, armor surrounded his body and he was now a ranger. His helmet was gold-colored and looked like a bird's head, the wings on the sides of his head, the visor inside the top and bottoms of the silver beak, and the green eyes above that. His suit's top and bottoms were dark blue, on his forearms were golden gauntlets with two sets of short blades with sharp edges that sat side-by-side with one another and had golden gloves too, the boots were gold too and went up to the bottoms of his knees much like the rangers' boots. He had chest gear similar to the Black Hole Ranger's, but it was gold and there were no spikes on his shoulder guards, and instead of a menacing face on the front of the chest-guard were two green gems that looked like eyes and on the bottom of it looked slightly curved downwards like a bird's beak, and on his gold belt-buckle was a phoenix.

"With the power of the Phoenix, Astro Force Phoenix Ranger!" Carter shouted before two objects appeared in his hands. They were two golden swords in the shape of a stretched out bird's wing and above the hilt was a green circular gem with a black phoenix symbol in the center, and on the bottoms were the heads of eagles.

"What!? Another ranger!?" Zarkon asked in outrage at the sight of the new ranger that stood before him.

"Way to go, Carter!" Hunk cheered.

"Black Hole Ranger, destroy him!" Zarkon ordered. Matt dropped the bag that contained the rangers' morphers and power cards and pulled out his own power sword.

"It will be my pleasure, master" Matt said before he charged towards the Phoenix Ranger. Carter then jumped off the top of the stadium's entrance with a front flip and made a slashing motion with one of the golden wing blades.

"Wings of the Phoenix!" shouted Carter, the blade glowed bright yellow and when he made the slashing motion, an energy wave made entirely of fire struck Matt quicker than his own power sword could try and deflect it. It struck the chest-guard and made him fall flat on his back.

"How does it feel to be beaten at your own game, Matt?" asked Carter.

"Stop calling me that! That's not my name!" the Black Hole Ranger shouted as he got back up and charged at Carter again. The two rangers began battling one another in bladed combat, Carter was able to block with both blades and even create an open for an attack in which he slashed the chest-guards and backsides of his chest armor which created sparks when the blades struck the silver metallic guards.

"How is this happening!? I'm supposed to be unstoppable!" Matt called out in anger. Carter then leaped high up into the air and extended one of his legs in a kicking motion.

"Flaming Phoenix Kick!" Carter shouted and fire began surrounding the leg that was stuck out. The kick went to Matt's helmet and his visor was completely cracked and the glass fell to the ground and he was flung back against the wall where the back of his body cracked the stone walls.

"My visor! You broke my visor!" the Black Hole Ranger snarled. Carter stared deep into Matt's exposed purple eyes and held both blades up in a defensive position.

"You're history!" Carter said before he did a back flip and landed on a glowing object which just appeared. The object was was a long skateboard that had a phoenix head on the front, on the sides were the wings.

"Solar Surfer, engage!" Carter said as he piloted the board towards the Black Hole Ranger and out of the Phoenix' mouth on the board shot out multiple glowing yellow fire balls which struck Matt in several places and knocked him down. The Solar Surfer then disappeared and Carter stood in front of the fallen Matt who was now standing back up and covering his injured chest with his arms.

"Wow, that Phoenix Ranger sure is tough" Shiro said.

"Tough? Are you kidding me? He's the one who's really unstoppable!" Pidge said. Matt growled while standing on his wobbly knees.

"You thought you could steal this victory so easily from me?" he asked. Carter then pointed one of his swords at him.

"Stand down, Matt. I don't want to have to hurt you even more" Carter warned.

"You showed me your secret weapon, now I show you mine" Matt said before he placed his middle and index fingers of his right hand up to the sky.

"Black Hole Dragon, arise!" he shouted. Out from the sky came forth the corrupted Draco-Zord which sat on the edge's of the stadium walls. When it roared to the sky, it let out a large blast of black flames before it looked down at Carter and tried shooting another blast at him, but all Carter did was raise both his swords up and it absorbed the flames and the colors changed from black to yellow.

"Nice try, but the spirit of the Phoenix feeds of the flames and feels no pain from not even a single ember!" Carter told Matt as he made a slashing motion again with both swords and two fiery waves in the shape of an X shot up to the Draco-Zord and hit it right in the chest, which caught the corrupted Zord off guard and made it fall down to the ground, causing the ground to shake slightly.

"You're not the only one with a powerful Legend-Zord" Carter said before his swords disappeared and placed one arm against his chest while the other was raised up to the sky with an index and middle finger raised up to the sky.

"Spirit of the mighty Phoenix, awaken!" he called out, from the tips of his fingers shot out a bright yellow beam of energy to the sky. All the rangers looked up to see a large Zord covered in fire and it cried out like a falcon. When it sat on the edges of the walls, the flames disappeared and a large golden bird with glowing green eyes appeared. Everyone was in awe at the sight of this new Legend-Zord that stood before them.

"Behold, the Phoenix-Zord!" shouted the Phoenix Ranger. The Phoenix-Zord opened up it's beak and shot out three rounds of glowing yellow fire balls at the Draco-Zord's head, each of them hitting the forehead or the sides and rendered it powerless.

"Let's see how well your bird stands against this" Matt said before crossing his arms against his chest armor in the shape of an X and called out another command.

"Black Hole Dragon, transform!" just like before during the first battle on Volcanus, the Draco-Zord took a whole new form and become the Fury-Zord. He jumped into the mouth and landed in the command center. Carter then saw multiple Galra sentries heading towards them with guns and then turned towards the rangers.

"Rangers, you take care of those sentries. As for me, I'm gonna pluck that arrow out of the Fury-Zord's chest and break the curse" he said. Shiro and the others nodded and ran towards the large bag and picked their morphers out and mounted them back onto their wrists.

"Astro Blaster, Supercharge!" called out the rangers. All of them now had their suits and helmets on and they all took out their power swords as well. While the rangers did battle with the sentries, he placed his hands on his chest armor and called out a command.

"Phoenix-Zord, transform!" he called out.

 **A/N: There you have it! Carter has been revealed to be the mysterious cloaked savior of the rangers, and the secret weapon he's been talking about it the Phoenix card, which gives him the power to be the newest member of the team, the gold Phoenix Ranger. Now that he was able to take down Matt so easily, let's see what Carter has up his sleeves to taking down the Fury-Zord in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


	21. Black Hole Fury part 2 III

**A/N: Welcome to the next part of 'Black Hole Fury part 2' where Carter has come to rescue the Power Rangers from being executed and activates the powers of the gold Phoenix Ranger, and he was able to best Matt in a fight and managed to overpower him and take him down easily. Now the Black Hole Dragon-Zord and the Phoenix-Zord are here to do battle with one another while the rangers battle a hoard of Galra sentry robots. Let's see what's in store for the Black Hole Ranger now that Carter has commanded his Phoenix-Zord to transform. Enjoy!**

Carter gave the command for the Phoenix-Zord to change it's shape and them ran forth before jumping into the Phoenix-Zord's beak before it closed shut and Carter was inside a control room standing in the middle of a circular platform in the center that glowed light blue and on the left and right sides were control panels. The Phoenix-Zord began changing shape, the wings folded onto the back and formed a shield-like shape that was mounted onto the back, out of the upper left and right sides come out two arms that also had short sharp-edged blades like Carter has on his gauntlets, and the legs extended and the claws were attached to the front of the feet. Finally, the beak of the Phoenix-Zord opened up again to reveal a silver face with no mouth and had two green eyes.

"Phoenix Force Mega-Zord!" Carter shouted out. While the rangers took care of the Galra sentries, they all got a good glimpse at the powerful looking Phoenix Force Mega-Zord.

"I can't believe my eyes!" Hunk exclaimed.

"I know, we actually have a second Mega-Zord now" Pidge responded.

"Let's just hope it's strong enough to beat Matt's Fury-Zord" Shiro added before he went back to slicing and dicing his power sword blade right through each sentry body near him that got close. The Phoenix Force Mega-Zord then took a fighting stance in front of the Fury-Zord who also took a stance.

"You humiliated me in front of my master, and now you're gonna pay for it!" the Black Hole Ranger shouted from the control center of his Fury-Zord.

"We'll see who's gonna pay!" Carter retorted.

"Dark-Star Pulse, fire!" Matt commanded, and the black beam of energy that was surrounded by purple lightning which beat the Mega-Zord before shot out of the triangular center jewel towards Carter's Mega-Zord.

"Phoenix-Fury shield!" he shouted. The Mega-Zord pulled the shield that was formed from the wings off it's back and held it up to the Dark-Star pulse to block it. The beam was then deflected off the surface of the shield and bounced right back at the Fury-Zord right in the stomach area which caused it to fall backwards into one of the stadium walls and fall right through, creating a large hole in the middle.

"There's a taste of your own medicine for ya, now stop this right now!" Carter demanded.

"You are in no position to give me commands, ranger! You may have beaten me in combat before, and you got lucky with that shield of yours, but you will not beat me again!" the Black Hole Ranger said in anger while the Fury-Zord stood back up.

"You seem to forget that overconfidence can lead to one's defeat. You've relied solely on the powers that Zarkon and Haggar had given to you that your fighting style is sloppy and undisciplined!" the Phoenix Ranger told him.

"How dare you insult my power! It has made me stronger than you and your weakling Power Rangers would ever hope to be!" Matt snapped at him.

"That power will only consume and destroy you" Carter said before he pressed a button on the left control panel and the shield split apart and the wings reconnected themselves via an elongated pipe that represented a handle that was common with double-ended spears. The wings also let out a curved sharp knife blade like a switchblade would. The Phoenix-Force Mega-Zord grabbed onto the center of the handle and held it in a position as if it were wielding a BO-staff.

"Razor-wing staff!" Carter shouted when his new weapon was engaged.

"You are not the only one who's Mega-Zord possesses a weapon, Phoenix Ranger! Engage Savage-Ax!" the Black Hole Ranger commanded and the dragon wings on the back of the Fury-Zord had flown off by themselves and spread themselves out like a pick-ax blade and the handle appeared out of the very center. The Fury-Zord's hand caught the weapon and assumed an attack position. The two Mega-Zords then engaged in combat and Carter saw the flaws in his enemy's attacks and saw a few openings for an attack. The Razor-wing spear was then swung at the left leg and Matt didn't defend against it since he didn't anticipate the attack, which left a glowing yellow slash-mark where the blade struck and the mark created an explosion which rendered the leg weak and the Fury-Zord was now down on it's knees.

"Give up?" Carter asked.

"Not a chance!" Matt snarled as he tried swinging the ax at the Phoenix-Force Mega-Zord's side but using it's one free hand, the Mega-Zord caught it and yanked it out of the Fury-Zord's hand and tossed it to the side. The Fury-Zord then took a kick to the stomach area by Carter's Mega-Zord's and then an elbow jab to the face which now knocked it's body to the ground. Using it's feet, the Phoenix-Force Mega-Zord pinned the Fury-Zord's wrists to the ground.

"Now you will be free of Haggar's spell!" called out the Phoenix Ranger before he made the Mega-Zord's hand move to the chest where the arrow was and grabbed onto it tightly. The arrow was lodged into the center jewel pretty tightly but the Mega-Zord showed great strength as it pulled the arrow.

"No! Stop it! What are you doing!? No!" Matt cried out as the Phoenix-Force Mega-Zord pulled harder at the arrow. With one final pull, the cursed arrow was pulled out and the Mega-Zord tossed it to the side. When the arrow fell onto the ground, it began to show signs of accelerated decay and it turned to ash which blew away in the wind.

"No!" Zarkon screamed as he watched the whole battle take place and watching the rangers take victory once again. The Fury-Zord's transformation has been undone and it was reverted back to the Black Hole Dragon-Zord. The purple and black colors on it's body began to fade away, and the true colors of the Draco-Zord had been revealed, the entire Zord's body was shining silver and the chest jewel was yellow instead of purple, and the eyes changed their color from purple to red. Once the Draco-Zord has been freed of the spell, it disappeared and Matt was lying on the ground screaming in pain as the Black Hole Ranger suit disappeared and Matt fell unconscious. The Mega-Zord disappeared and Carter landed on his feet before facing Zarkon.

"You destroyed my Black Hole Ranger!?" he shouted. Carter then saw as the other rangers stood behind him and then looked back up to their enemy.

"Let this be a lesson to you, Zarkon. Hope never dies, all it takes is one spark for the fires of rebellion to be lit" the Phoenix Ranger said. All Zarkon did was snarl and walk away backwards.

"This is not over, Power Rangers" he said before running out of the stadium and towards the shuttle he had arrived on. When everyone saw the shuttle take off, they took deep breaths of relief and calmly said 'Power Down' together and their ranger suits disappeared. After everyone placed their power cards in their pockets, Carter, Pidge, and Shiro ran towards Matt's unconscious body and got down on their knees beside him. Shiro and Pidge watched in silence as Carter read his vitals.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Pidge asked.

"He's just tired. That fight really took a lot of energy out of him, but he should be okay" Carter told her with reassurance. Shiro then saw that Matt's power card and morpher gauntlet were changing as well. The gauntlet was no longer black and purple, but silver and gold, as well as the power card, the dragon head and electrical pathways were gold and sat atop the card's silver plexiglass body.

"The curse, it's been lifted" Keith said, other than the words he spoke just now, he was speechless. The evil that plagued Matt's body was now gone, and the Black Hole Ranger was no more. The rangers were now cheering in victorious joy, Lance and Pidge hugged one another and smiling while one hugged the other lovingly. Carter picked Matt up into his arms and then looked to Shiro, who nodded as a way of saying he knew what he was going to ask and pressed the communicator button on his morpher.

"Allura, open the wormhole up. We're coming back, and we've got Matt" he said. The portal opened up and all the rangers ran through, the portal closing up behind them when they walked through. When they arrived back at the command center, Carter handed the unconscious Matt to Coran who took him into his arms after Carter removed his gauntlet.

"Take him to the med-bay and make sure he's all properly patched up" Carter told him.

"You got it" Coran said before running down the hallways of the command center towards the med-bay. Carter and Allura followed him while the other rangers stayed behind in the master computer room.

 **-At Galra Central Command-**

Zarkon angrily paced around the throne room, his steps creating loud thumps as he paced across the metal surface. He muttered swear words in the Galra language as well as insults directed towards the Power Rangers. Haggar entered the room to see that her emperor was very angry to say the least, and his angry eyes were now focused on her. Zarkon grabbed the witch by the throat and held her up by it.

"The Black Hole Ranger was destroyed and taken by those pathetic rangers!" he shouted in her face, making her flinch.

"Sire, I didn't expect them to have another ranger" she weakly rasped, begging for Zarkon to have mercy on her.

"I grow tired of hearing your excuses. The one thing you've created that actually out-bested the Power Rangers, and you failed to see that removing the cursed poison arrow could be a weakness!" Zarkon screamed before slamming his fist into her chest and sending her flying backwards onto the floor. When Haggar got back up, she weakly groaned towards her master.

"This is not the end, I promise you. I can create another Robeast more stronger than Drazil and Praxas" she suggested.

"No! I will not accept another failure from you again! This time, I will not rely on your magic to destroy the rangers" Zarkon said before he walked over to his throne and pressed a purple button on one of the armrests.

"Commander Kanvar, send a transmission out to some off the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. Let them know that there will be a substantial reward for the one who finds and kills the Power Rangers" Zarkon said.

"As you wish. It will be done, master" the male voice on the other end replied. Zarkon then walked over to the window of the throne room and looked out to the stars surrounded by his battleship fleets.

"You think you've surprised me with the addition of a new ranger? Believe me when I say this, rangers, I too have tricks up my sleeve" Zarkon snarled to himself.

 **-Back on Earth-**

Matt had just woken up and his vision was blurry at first but once his vision was properly adjusted to the light, he saw that he was surrounded by Shiro, Carter, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Allura, and Coran. He was shirtless and has bandages and stitches all over his body that covered not only injuries he got in his fight with the Phoenix Ranger, but the injuries that the Galra torturers had given him during his time in Beta-Traz.

"W-Where am I?" Matt asked everyone.

"You're in the command center infirmary. Haggar's spell was broken when Carter pulled the arrow out of the Draco-Zord's chest" Shiro told him.

"Oh yeah, I-I-I remember everything now. I'm so sorry for all the terrible things I did to you as the Black Hole Ranger" Matt said with an apologetic tone. Pidge smiled and took her flesh and blood hand into Matt's mechanical one.

"But it's okay now, Matt. You're back on Earth now. Not only that, you can help us battle the Galra and free the Galra" Pidge offered.

"Katie? Is that you?" Matt asked. She nodded and took off her glasses to wipe the happy tears out of her eyes.

"Yeah, you don't know the great lengths I've had to go to try and find you and dad. Now I've found you, and I couldn't be more happier" said Pidge before she hugged him and cried into his bare chest. Matt hugged back and let a few tears leak out of his eyes as well as they hugged.

"I'm happy too, Katie" Matt whispered.

"Call me Pidge, I kinda like it better than Katie" she said. Matt just chuckled lightly at this and ruffled her hair.

"Whatever you say, Pidge" he replied.

"So what do you say? Will you join us? Will you become a Power Ranger?" asked Shiro. Matt then looked down at his lap in guilt.

"You really want me to fight with you? After all I did to you guys?" Matt asked.

"Of course, we could always use more rangers to take down Zarkon for good, not to mention we can try and find dad along the way" said Pidge.

"I'm Keith, the red ranger" Keith piped in, introducing himself.

"Name's Lance, I'm the blue ranger" Lance said.

"I'm Hunk and I'm the yellow ranger" Hunk added.

"Shiro's the black ranger, and I'm the green ranger" Pidge told her older brother.

"So what do you say, Matt? Will you be the silver ranger?" asked Carter. He was silent for a while but then looked to the others smiling.

"I will. I want them to pay for everything those monsters did to me" Matt replied and everyone was cheering.

"This is a really good day for us! We got two new rangers on the team! Let's celebrate with some Squirrel Stew with pickled Viper-Fish guts and poison ivy roots!" Coran cheered. All the rangers made sickened looks at the thought of that horrible sounding dish. Carter then pulled out his cell phone.

"Pizza anyone?" asked the new Phoenix Ranger, and they all cheered in agreement except for Lance and Pidge.

"Actually, you guys go ahead. Pidge and I are gonna go have dinner together tonight" Lance told the others with one arm around her shoulder, to which she blushed and smiled slightly at that.

"You don't really have to do that, Lance" Pidge told the blue ranger.

"I promised you that if we made it out of that arena alive I'd take you out to be wined and dined, and I always keep my promises" he told her. Matt nodded to Pidge and told her it was alright. The two then nuzzled their noses like two puppies.

"Oh great, you're in love, how gross for everyone" Hunk said sarcastically before he began dialing Carter's cell phone for the number for the pizza parlor. With everyone shouting out what they wanted on their pizza, Lance and Pidge walked out of the med-bay holding hands.

 **A/N: And there is the final part of part 2 of 'Black Hole Fury' and the next update is gonna be so much more awesome than this chapter because we have a team-up chapter coming up! No, it's not a past team of Power Rangers (I'm saving that for a later chapter) but for those of you who loved 'Power Rangers in Space' this team up will remind you of a certain episode in the series. More to come in the next update! Please review, thanks!**


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